188 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



in the smallness of their teeth. Their resemblance to each other in the form and 

 structure of the head is very close : both have, when fresh, a strong smell of cucum- 

 bers, and both are said to emit, occasionally, a very noisome stench. Nilsson states 

 that the stinking smelt, named JVors by the Swedes, is a smaller kind, but differ- 

 ing only in size from the larger, which is named Slom. The Capelin is much used 

 in the Newfoundland fishery as a bait for cod, and it is also dried in large quan- 

 tities and exported to London, where it is sold principally in the oyster shops. 

 Dried capelin forms so important an article of food in Greenland, that it has been 

 termed the daily bread of the natives. 



Although authors have taken it for granted that there is but one species of 

 Capelin, we do not know that the fact has been fully established by a comparison 

 of specimens from different seas. The description quoted below from my notes, of 

 the appearance of a recent individual taken in the American polar sea, differs from 

 the Newfoundland fish (of which through the kindness of M. Audubon, I possess a 

 number of specimens preserved in spirits) in the appearance of the scales on the 

 back, and in the top of the head being granulated ; but when I recollect the dis- 

 advantages under which that description was originally drawn up, I cannot venture 

 to consider it as sufficient to warrant me in concluding that it relates to a new 

 species. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male specimen taken in Bathurst Inlet, lat. 67° N., August. 4, 1821. 



Form. — Profile of the body linear, the head forming a lanceolate termination on the one 

 side, and the attachment of the anal fin sloping suddenly up towards the tail on the other. 

 The back is broad. Head. The eye is large, and the centre of the pupil is eight lines dis- 

 tant from the obtuse extremity of the upper jaw. The under jaw, acute and longer than the 

 upper one, is capable of considerable depression. When the mouth opens its sides are formed 

 by the labials, whose posterior piece is very moveable, as in the Coregoni. The jaws, tongue, 

 palate, and vomer, are furnished with minute teeth, which are more readily felt than seen. 

 The branchial arches are set with a single row of bristle-like rakers, which appear to be 

 smooth under the lens. The gill-openings are very large : the membranes contain nine rays. 



Scales. — Instead of scales of the ordinary form, the back is covered with small smooth 

 grains like shagreen, but soft to the touch, which are continued along the upper surface of the 

 head to the snout. A prominent obtuse ridge, of nearly equal breadth throughout, extends 

 along the lateral line from the gill-opening to the caudal fin : it is composed of soft, tumid, 

 semi-lanceolate, acute, diaphanous processes, or altered scales, minutely spotted with black 

 and densely tiled, with the points turned towards the tail. There is a similar b\it less promi- 

 nent ridge between the pectorals and ventrals, which re-commences behind the latter fins, and 

 is continued, though less conspicuously, to the anal. These ridges cause the sides to appear 



