SALMONOIDE^E. lOO 



by a gentleman in charge of the fur-posts on the Mirigan and Musquaw rivers, 

 which fall into the St. Lawrence near its mouth. Were it not that the skins 

 of these appear to have been overstretched in drying., so as to account, at least 

 in some degree, for the differences of the relative positions of the fins, I should 

 have considered them as distinct from the Salmo salar, and I still think that their 

 identity with that species is somewhat doubtful. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a specimen preserved in salt, imported from Quebec. 



Colour. — Head bluish-grey above, very silvery on the sides ; two round black spots about 

 the size of a pea between the eye and the nape, and one upon the operculum. Back and 

 upper parts of the sides pearl-grey with a strong silvery lustre, reflecting a purplish tint, when 

 opposed to the light: the lower parts of the sides have an uniform pearly tint with much 

 lustre. There are four rows of black spots above the lateral line, each spot surrounding one 

 scale, and running into the interstices of the adjacent ones : some of the rows cease towards 

 the head and tail ; they contain about thirty spots on each side. The under jaw, throat, and 

 belly are unspotted white. The pectorals and caudal are white at the base, their tips and 

 the whole of the dorsal being bluish-grey : the anal and back of the ventrals are grey with 

 whitish rays. 



Scales thin, flexible, and nacry ; the uncovered portion of each on the back and upper 

 part of the sides is rhomboidal. Near the dorsal fin there are seven scales in a linear inch, 

 but adjoining to the lateral line there are only six. On the lower parts of the sides the mar- 

 gins of the scales are segments of circles. A scale taken from the lateral line is oval, obtuse at 

 both ends, and about one-third longer than it is wide. There are 124 scales on the lateral 

 line, including the small ones on the base of the caudal, and 47 in a vertical row below the dor- 

 sal, of which 20 are above the lateral line, and the same number between it and the ventrals. 



Form. — Head small and neat, forming one-fifth of the total length excluding the caudal : 

 it is convexly conical when the jaws are closed, the profile of the forehead being a continua- 

 tion of the moderate curve from the dorsal. Tip of the snout rounded but not broad. Orbits 

 circular, placed one diameter from the upper end of the labials, two from the tip of the snout, 

 and three and a half from the posterior edge of the gill-cover. The nostrils are as near again 

 to the orbit as to the end of the snout. The intermaxillaries are cartilaginous and are one 

 half the length of the labials. The labials are thin and flat with a slightly curved anterior 

 edge : they are narrow at their junction with the intermaxillaries, but spread out into ellip- 

 tical plates towards the angles of the mouth: the posterior piece, or apophysis, which is 

 acutely elliptical, forms more than half the breadth of the labial, but does not reach quite to 

 the tip of the latter. The distance between the tip of the snout and extremity of the labial 

 reaches a little beyond the base of the snout *, or a line drawn from the posterior edge of one 

 orbit to that of the other. The under jaw is acute and projects slightly beyond the snout 



* Linea rosin lasalis of Nilssou. 



x2 



