124 The Grayling and the Smelt 
surf-smelts that appear must not be sold or given away to be 
taken to another place, nor must they be cut transversely, but 
split open with a mussel-shell.”’ 
The surf-smelt is marine, as is also a similar species, Mesopus 
japonicus, in Japan. Mesopus olidus, the pond-smelt of Alaska, 
Kamchatka, and Northern Japan, spawns in fresh-water ponds. 
Still more excellent as a food-fish than even these exquisite 
species is the famous eulachon, or candle-fish (Thaleichthys 
pacificus). The Chinook name, usually written eulachon, is 
perhaps more accurately represented as ulchen. This little 
fish has the form of a smelt and reaches the length of nearly a 
foot. In the spring it ascends in enormous numbers all the 
Fic. 83.—Eulachon, or Ulehen. Thaleichthys pretiosus Girard. Columbia River. 
Family Argentinida. 
tivers north of the Columbia, as far as Skaguay, for a short 
distance for the purpose of spawning. These runs take place 
usually in advance of the salmon-runs. Various predatory 
fishes and sea-birds persecute the eulachon during its runs, 
and even the stomachs of the sturgeons are often found full 
of the little fishes, which they have taken in by their sucker- 
like mouths. At the time of the runs the eulachon are ex. 
tremely fat, so much so that it is said that when dried and a 
wick drawn through the body they may be used as candles. 
On Nass River, in British Columbia, a stream in which their 
run is greatest, there is a factory for the manufacture of eula- 
chon-oilfrom them. This delicate oil is proposed as a substitute 
for cod-liver oil in medicine. Whatever may be its merits in 
this regard, it has the disadvantage in respect to salability 
of being semi-solid or lard-like at ordinary temperatures, re- 
quiring melting to make it flow as oil. The eulachon is a favorite 
