THE SMELTS AND THEIR KINDRED. 513 
“The manner of the capelin’s depositing its spawn is one of the most 
curious circumstances attending its natural history. The male fishes are 
somewhat larger than the female, and are provided also with a sort of ridge, 
projecting on each side of their backbones, similar to the eaves of a house, 
in which the female cafe/in is deficient. ‘The latter, on approaching the 
beach to deposit its spawn, is attended by two male fishes, who huddle the 
female between them, until her whole body is concealed under the project- 
ing ridges before mentioned, and only her head is visible. In this state they 
run, all three together, with great swiftness, upon the sands; when the 
males, by some imperceptible inherent power, compress the body of the 
female betwixt their own, so as to expel the spawn from an orifice near 
the tail. Having thus accomplished its delivery, the three capelim separate, 
and, paddling with their whole force through the shallow surf of the beach, 
generally succeed in regaining once more the bosom of the deep. 
“Tt is an entertaining sight, while standing upon the shore, to observe 
myriads of these fishes forsaking their own element, and running their 
bodies on the sand, in all directions. Many of them find it totally impos- 
sible to return to the water, and thus the beaches of Labrador are frequently 
covered with dead capelin. They have so little timidity that when the 
author has waded into the sea, amidst a shoal of them, he has taken two or 
three at a time in his hands. Upon these occasions he was enabled to 
ascertain, beyond a doubt, that the evacuation of the spawn is caused by a 
compression on the part of the males, as, when thus taken in the hand, the 
female capelin invariably yielded up its spawn the instant that it received 
the slightest pressure from the fingers.” 
M. H. Perley and Charles Lanman have been quoted for these observa- 
tions, and Professor Smitt, in his recent great “ History of Scandinavian 
Fishes,” has referred to Lanman alone as the authority for the observations. 
Chappell has been overlooked by all. In truth, Chappell was the original 
author, and the others have plagiarized from him without any credit or 
quotation marks, although they have copied the greater part of the para- 
graphs word for word. Lanman was an epiparasite, having known only 
Perley’s work. Thus, it is evident that there are not three authorities for 
the statement in question, but only one. 
Now, European authors have described the Capelin as spawning in water 
of considerable depth and asserted that the males and females go in 
separate schools. According to Fabricius, it oviposits in shoal water on 
plants, the females preceding in one school and the males following in 
33 
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