THE ZOOLOGIST 



Mo. 878.— August 15th, 1914. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON SOME POINTS IN THE LIFE- 

 HISTORY OP THE SALMON, AND A CONTRAST 

 OF ITS OVIPOSITION WITH THAT OF A FEW 

 OTHER TYPES OF TELEOSTEANS. 



By Prof. McIntosh, M.D., LL.D., F.R.SS. L. & E., Gatty 

 Marine Laboratory, University St. Andrews. 



Few fishes, either now or formerly, have attracted more 

 attention than the Salmon, for it is conspicuous alike by the 

 beauty and symmetry of its form and the celerity of its move- 

 ments, which are seen to advantage in the clear currents of the 

 rivers which it periodically haunts. But both the naturalist 

 and the anatomist might have celebrated its physical perfection 

 in vain if there had not been other qualities which enhanced it 

 in the estimation of man, such as the rich nature of its muscle 

 as food, its high price, and the zest with which it is followed for 

 sport — all which have brought it continually under the eyes of 

 experienced observers, and thus information concerning it has 

 been extended in a remarkable degree. 



The Salmon is essentially a fish of the present waters, for it 

 goes no further back than the Pleistocene times, and, as a 

 bony fish, it is characterised by the occurrence of fins with soft 

 rays and of one (the adipose or " fatty " fin) without any, its 

 simple large air-bladder has an open pneumatic duct, and its 

 scales are cycloid, like those of the Eel, Herring, and Pilchard. 

 Its bones, as becomes a fish which partly frequents fresh water, 

 are lighter or less ossified than such as the Cod or the Plaice ; 

 and its skull has much cartilage in its composition. Its lateral 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XVIII., August, 1914. z 



