168 



NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



aimed at torture rather than immediate death, as they not only poked out her eyes, 

 but stabbed her in many parts remote from those which are vital. It may appear 

 strange, that a person supposed to be almost blind should be employed in the busi- 

 ness of fishing, and particularly with any degree of success ; but when the mul- 

 titude of fish is taken into account, the wonder will cease. Indeed, they were so 

 numerous at the foot of the fall, that when a light pole, armed with a few spikes, 

 which was the instrument the old woman used, was put under water and hauled 

 up with a jerk, it was scarcely possible to miss them. Some of my Indians tried 

 the method with the old woman's staff, and seldom got less than two or three at a 

 jerk, sometimes three or four. These fish, though very fine and beautifully red, 

 are but small, seldom weighing more, as near as I could judge, than six or seven 

 pounds, and in general much less. Their numbers at this place were almost in- 

 credible, perhaps equal to anything that is related of the salmon in Kamtschatka, 

 or any other part of the world." — After murdering the helpless old woman, toge- 

 ther with upwards of twenty of her countrymen, and destroying all the property 

 left at their tents, the party sat down to feast on the salmon, or, in the words of 

 our author, " After the Indians had completed this piece of wantonness, we sat 

 down and made a good meal of fresh salmon." (Hearne, Journ, &c, p. 158.) 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a recent fish taken at Bloody-fall, Lat. 67° 42^' N., on July 16, 1821. 



Colour. — Back olive-green ; sides pale ; belly bluish ; several longitudinal rows of flesh-red 

 spots on the back and sides, largest, on the latter, where they are as big as a pea ; cheeks and 

 gill-covers nacry. Scales firmly imbedded in a mucous skin and very small, but possessing 

 much pearly lustre. 



Form like that of the Common salmon, with a proportionably larger head. Eyes small, 

 situated opposite to the middles of the labials, and half an inch above their toothed edges. 

 Nostrils midway between the eye and end of the snout. The intermaxillaries form a compa- 

 ratively small portion of the margin of the mouth, and project somewhat from the rest of the 

 jaw: the labials are strap-shaped. The lower jaw terminates in a small knob, which is 

 received into a depression in the intermaxillaries'. The gill-membrane contains ten oblique 

 rays : the openings are wide. 



Teeth subulate, in a thin row on the labials and lower jaw ; a solitary tooth of the same 

 size stands on each side of the intermaxillary notch : there are likewise rows of teeth on the 

 palate-bones, a few on the anterior part of the vomer, and some stronger ones on the tongue, 

 all subulate. 



Fins.— Br. 10; D. ; V. ; A. 10*; C. . 



* In the Appendix to Sir John Franklin's First Journey, the anal is stared to have 18 rays, from an error in the tran- 

 scription of my original notes. 



