THE SALMON FAMILY. 211 



are^ steadily doing their work of destruction, and unless more 

 stringent laws are enacted for the protection of Salmon, or 

 those already passed are more rigidly enforced, the Salmon- 

 rivers of the British provinces will, in the course of a few 

 . years, become as barren as our own. 



Scientific Description. — The following is a description 

 of a fresh-run female Salmon, of sixteen pounds, taken in the 

 Nipissiguit last summer : — 



Length to the. fork of the caudal fin, thirty-three inches, 

 girth eighteen, breadth seven, caudal when expanded, nine. 

 Form, an elongated ellipse, its greatest breadth in. front of 

 the dorsal fin. Color ; back, of greenish blue ; sides, light 

 silvery gray ; belly, white ; there are angular but irregular 

 markings, sometimes like the letter X, dispersed along the 

 back and above the lateral line about an inch or two apart ; 

 the brilliancy of a fresh-run fish is unsurpassed, its sides 

 gleaming in the sunlight like burnished silver, as it leaps 

 above the water. The head is a dark steel-blue above, 

 shading lighter below with pearly reflections, and entirely 

 white beneath ; it has two or three dark spots on the opercle. 



There is a great difference in the proportions of a male 

 and female Salmon, which is more perceptible as the summer 

 advances ; the head of a male fish is nearly one-fourth of its 

 length, exclusive of the caudal, that of a female is not much 

 more than a fifth, while the head of a female Grilse is not 

 more than a sixth. The lateral line is straight, as in all the 

 Salmonoids. There are twelve branchial rays. The pectoral 

 fin, which has thirteen rays, is a pearly gray, with the first 

 ray black ; ventrals grayish white, with nine rays ; anal 

 roseate white, with nine rays ; . dorsal dark pearly blue, with 

 twelve rays ; the caudal is slightly lunate, and has eighteen, 

 exclusive of the rudimentary rays. 



There is a cartilaginous projection on the tip of the lower 



