KNUT DAHL. 



only salmon-characters of a safer nature, which they possess, 

 is the relatively short upper jav and partly the size of the 

 breastfins. 



The specimen No. 173 is not yet sexually mature and differs 

 as may be seen above (ca. 4 cm.) so little in length from the 

 largest known smolts from norwegian rivers, that this solitary 

 specimen hardly can be considered as material for a description 

 of the stage in question. 



Specimen No. 172 is in a state of sexual maturity and in 

 this state possesses several characters, f. ex. prolongation and 

 thickening of pectorals ventral and anal fin, which renders it con- 

 siderably different to immature fishes. Consequently it is very 

 little fit to form a base of description of such fishes. 



In determining the importance to be attributed to these 

 prof. Smitt 6 specimens as material for a description of sal- 

 mon between the emigration and the grilse stage, two facts must, 

 according to my opinion, be held in view. 



First it must be remembered that the last one of them is 

 taken in Venern, and that all the other fishes are taken in the 

 Motala, a water course, which according to the explicit reports 

 of an investigator as f. ex. Widegren is supphed with fish from 

 the lake Vettern and is connected with nearly the whole of the 

 lake complex of middle Sweden, a locality wich, as is well 

 known, possesses a „landlocked" variety of salmon, whose 

 main characteristic is the union of several, salmon and trout 

 characters. 



As for myself, not having had the opportunity of systema- 

 tically investigating the fishes of these waters, I will not express 

 anything definite regarding these young fishes. I will only give 

 prominence to the opinion that in all probability they belong 

 to the middle Swedish relict variety the Vener- or Vetfer-salmon. 



At all events they are not oceanic salmon (salmo salar). 



Secondly I draw attention to the fact that one of these 

 fishes No, 172 is in a state of maturety, a circumstance, wich 



