•3i 



It is said to reach a length of eighteen inches. A fish of 



some importance for making oil and for manure and the 



natural food of many predatory fishes. It is not edible and 



decays quickly. 



Family Argentinidae. 



Smklts. 

 Resembles the salmon family in many respects. Small fishes 

 with an adipose fin and small scales. The stomach is a blind 

 sac, the gullet and intestines opening closely together. Pyloric 

 caeca few or wanting. 



Osmerus mordax {Mitch.'). 

 Smelt; Frostfish. 

 Mouth large ; teeth strong. Dorsal 10, A. 15. Scales 

 about 68. Length to 12 inches. Greenish, paler on the sides 

 with a silvery band. Very similar to the European species. 

 Found along the northern Atlantic coast ; anadromous. 

 A delicate fish, plentiful around stream mouths and some- 

 times land-locked. The flesh has a sweet taste. Artificial 

 hatching has much increased-the supply of the smelt. 



Family Salmonidae. 



Salmons. 



Strongly built fishes of oblong shape with cycloid scales, the 

 head naked ; mouth often very large and generally well- 

 toothed. An adipose fin, caudal forked, lateral line present. 

 Stomach siphonal, pyloric caeca up to 200, rarely absent ; air 

 bladder large, simple. In many of them the lower jaw of the 

 male during the breeding season becomes prolonged and hook- 

 shaped and fits into the emarginate or perforate upper jaw. 



An arctogaeal family, mostly of the freshwater. The larger 

 species are anadromous. The salmons are, economically, one 

 of the most important families and many species are becoming 

 cosmopolitan by human interference. 



Salmo salar L. 



Atlantic Salmon. 

 A powerful fish with the characteristic hook jaw in the 

 breeding season. Brownish above, silvery on sides, with many 

 scattered black cross-shaped spots on head, body and fins, often 



