54 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



ABDOMINAL. 

 MALACOPTERYGII. 



SALMONIDjE. 



^UE.j, 



Saluom Pikes, up to liz months old. 



THE SALMOl!^. 



THB. COMMON SALMON, THE TRUE SALMON 



Pink, first year, Smolt, second year, Peal or Grilse, second autumn. — Salmo 

 Salar, Auctordm, British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 1. DeKay, vol. iv. 



Although this noble fish has never b^en made the subject, so far 

 as I kjiow, of any of the strange and monstrous fables which have 

 obtained concerning many others of the inhabitants of the waters — as i 

 for instance the- Pike, of which old Izaak tells us, "it is not to be ' 

 . doubted, but that they are bred, some by generation, and some not, 

 as namely, of a weed called pickerel-weed, unless learned Gessner 

 be much mistaken ; for he says, this weed and other glutinous matter, 

 with the help of the sun's heat, in some particular months, and some 

 ponds adapted for it by nature, do become Pikes" — still, until within 

 the last few years, very little has been known with certainty concerning 

 him in his infancy, and during the earlier stages of his growth. 



"•The Salmon," says Izaak Walton, " is accounted the king of 

 fresh-water fish, and is ever bred in rivers relating to the sea,, yet so 

 high or far from it as to admit no tincture of salt or brackishness. He 

 is said to breed or cast his spawn, in most rivers, in the month of 



