ZOOLOGY. 
325 
2. SALMO PAUCIDENS, Rich. 
Wcalt-tootliccl Salmon. 
Salmo paucidens, Rich. F. B. A. Ill, 222 — Herbert, Sup. to Fish Fishing, &c., 1850, 36. 
Sp. Ch. — This species, described by Richardson from the notes of Dr. Gairdner, and from some fragments received, I have not yet 
been able to obtain. The specific characters deduced from Richardson's description are as folhnvs : Dorsal outline nearly sti aif^ht. 
Back of head and body bluish gray. Belly white. Tail and fins unspotted. Caudal fdrked. Teeth sparingly scattered, and 
feeble. 
They reach, according to Dr. Gairdner, an average weight of three or four pounds, and ascend 
the Columbia in the sjoring, in company with the S. quinnat and S. Gairdneri. If not the 
young of some other species ah-eady known, it must certainly be considered as distinct. Sir 
John Richardson, in F. B. A, Part III, p. 223, seems to think it the same as the ^ '■ red-char" 
Lewis & Clark, and supposes that the S. Scoideri may have also been thus named by those 
travellers. It is very difficult to determine what species they really alluded to. They say: 
"The red-char are rather broader in proportion to their length than the common salmon; the 
scales are also imbricated, but rather larger; the rostrum exceeds the under jaw more, and the 
teeth are neither so large nor so numerous as those of the salmon. Some of them are almost 
entirely red on the helly and sides; others are much more white than the salmon; and none of 
them are variegated Avith the dark spots which mark the body of the other." 
As to the red color on the sides and belly, mentioned by those explorers, it is a mark of but 
little specific importance, as the females, and occasionally the males of the S. quinnat, S. 
Scoideri, S. cams, and probably those of several other species, become red, and sometimes 
purplish, after remaining some time in fresh water. Indeed, it is one of the first indications of 
the declining powers of the fish; and instead of being an evidence of high vital action, seems 
to be scorhutic in its character, forcibly reminding one of the redness caused in the human 
subject by the peculiar cachexia which produces scurvy and purpura haeriiorrhacjica. 
It seems, from this, not unlikely that the term "red-char" Avas applied to several species 
Avhen in bad condition. 
No Oregon salmon Avith Avhich I am familiar agrees in the characteristics given of S. paucidens. 
There is, however, a kind of salmon AAdiich runs up the smtdl rivers below the "Great Falls" 
(Dalles,) that is said to be very bright and silvery, and called, in consequence, the ivhite 
salmon'" by the settlers, and a river Avhich they ascend in great numbers by preference is 
named, from that circumstance, the White-salmon river. It is possible that this " w/n'fe .sa?Hio?i" 
may be the silvery-white scdinon-trout of LcAvis and Clark, and perhaps identical Avith Dr. 
Gairdner' s weak-toothed salmon. — (See beyond). LeAvis and Clark say : i; " Of the salmon-trout 
Ave observe tAvo species differing only in color. They are seldom more than two feet in length, 
and much omrroiver in proportion than the salmon or red-char. The jaAvs are nearly of the same 
length, and are furnished Avith a single series of smcdl subulate straight teeth, not so long nor 
so large as those of the salmon. * * One of the kiitds, of a silvery Avhite color on the 
belly and sides, and a bluish light-broAvn on the back and head, is found helow the Great Falls, 
and associates ivith the red-char in little riA^ilets and creeks. It is about two feet eight inches 
long, and Aveighs ten pounds." * "The Avhite kind found below the falls is in excellent 
order ^uhen the scdnion are out of season and unfit for use.^^ 
"The young of most species of salmon have the tails furlicd. In the present case the small teeth, forked tails, and small 
size, may indicate the young of a species already known, or of which the adult is yet to be described, 
t See quotation in Rich. F. B. A., Part 3, p. 163. — The italics are our own. 
