salmonoidejE. 185 



snout : it is obliquely quadrangular and higher than long : its three first rays are short and 

 lie closely against the base of the fourth. The anal has a slightly-crescentic margin, and occu- 

 pies more than half the space between its last ray and the caudal fin : its three anterior rays 

 are minute. The caudal is large and forked. 



Intestines. — The asophagus and stomach three inches long, have nine internal longitu- 

 dinal folds, and make a short turn upwards before terminating in the pylorus. A space of 

 two inches between the pylorus and the insertion of the gall-duct is surrounded by crowded 

 caeca : beneath the gall-duct the insertions of .the caeca are confined to one side of the 

 intestinal tube : the caeca are very numerous, slender, conical, and about a quarter of an inch 

 long. The remainder of the intestine descends in a straight line to the anus : the valvules 

 conniventes occupy an inch and a half of its lower end, a small piece next the anus being 

 smooth *. The air-bladder is large and communicates by a wide tube with the oesophagus. 

 There is a large spleen attached to the curvature of the stomach. 



Dimensions. — The length from the tip of the snout to the end of the caudal is twenty 

 inches and a half, or to the end of the scales on that fin, eighteen inches. 



[71.] 1. Salmo (Osmerus) eperlanus. (Artedi.) The Smelt. 



Family, Salmonoideae, Genus, Salmo. Linn. Sub-genus, Osmerus. Artedi. 

 Osmerus radiis pinna ani septemdecem. Artedi, Spec, p. 45. Syn., p. 21. 

 Salmo eperlanus. Linn. Auctorum. Spirling. Scotis. 



According to Cuvier there is only one known species of this sub-genus, the 

 highly-prized Smelt of the European seas and estuaries of the larger rivers. 

 It exists as far north as Sweden, and is enumerated by Lawson and Catesby among 

 the fish of America, but it does not occur in the Fauna Grcenlandica. M, Le 

 Sueur has described a smelt taken between Newport and Boston, under the name 

 of Osmerus viridescens ; but as Cuvier, though well acquainted with that gentle- 

 man's ichthyological papers, has not noticed this smelt in the Regne Animal, we 



* The following dimensions of the intestines of two English female salmon, omitted to be inserted in a preceding page, 

 may be contrasted with the above. 



Length from gullet to bend of stomach 



„ bend to pylorus . 



„ pylorus to last caecum .... 



„ remainder of gut . . . . . 



„ of whole alimentary canal .... 



„ space occupied by the thirty or forty valvules conniventes 



„ longest caecum , 



No. 1.- 



-63 caeca. 



No. 2.- 



-68 caeca 



Inches. 



Lines. 



Inches. 



Lines. 



10 



6 



10 









10 



3 



9 



5 



9 



5 



3 



17 







16 



10 



37 



1 



35 



10 



9 















6 







5 



3 



