SALMONID^!. 77 



that they should have been transported from the continent, after they 

 had arrived at maturity. 



Even to this day, in Austria, Illyria, and parts of the Tyrol, the 

 greatest attention is paid to the nurture of the most delicate fresh- 

 water fishes in confined situations ; and Sir Humphrey Davy states in 

 his " Salmonia," that, " at Admondt, in Styria, attached to the mag- 

 nificent monastery of that name, are abundant ponds and reservoirs for 

 every species of fresh-water fish ; and the Charr, Grayling, and Trout 

 are preserved in different waters — covered, enclosed, and under look 

 and key." 



And now having at length come to the end of this sort of disserta- 

 tion on the breeding, growth, and specific generation of the Salmon, 

 I shall briefly consider his characteristics, distinguishing marks and 

 habits, before passing to his nearest relation, in this country at least, 

 the Brook Trout. 



The Salmon, Salmo Salar, of Linnaeus and all authors, is, I have 

 observed before, a soft-finned fish of the abdominal division, his ven- 

 tral fins being attached to the parietes of the belly. His head is smooth, 

 his body scaly. His dorsal fins are two in number, the first supported 

 by soft rays, the second adipose or fatty, without rays ; he has teeth 

 on the vomer, both palatine bones, and all the maxillary bones. His 

 branch iostegous rays vary in number, generally, from ten to twelve, 

 but are irregular, and do not always coincide on the two sides of the 

 head. The teeth on the vomer rarely exceed two in number, and 

 there is frequently but one ; a sign which is thought to distinguish him 

 from the Salmon Trout, and other connected species. 



The length of his head, to the whole length of his body, is as one to 

 five ; the eye small and nearer to the point of the nose than to the pos- 

 terior edge of the gill-covei The pectoral fin is two-thirds the length 

 of the head, and has twelve fin-rays. The ventral fin lies in a vertical 

 line under the middle of the dorsal fin, and has nine rays ; the anal 

 fin commences about half-way between the origin of the ventral and 

 caudal fins, and has nine rays ; the caudal fin, or tail, has nineteen 

 rays ; when the fish is very young, it is much forked, but as it advances 

 in years, the central caudal rays grow up ; and it becomes nearly 

 Equare by the end of the fourth year. The first dorsal fin has thirteen 

 rays, all of which, with the exception of the two first, are branched 



