SALMONS. 
831 
b: Distance between the ventral lins and 
the tip of the snout less than half the 
length of the body. Salmo alpinus. 
B: Number of scales in a longitudinal row 
above the anal fin, for an extent of 1 / 10 
of the length of the body, as a rule at 
most 19 (15 — 19, exceptionally 13 or 21). 
Salmo salar. 
a: Least depth of the tail less than 27 % 
of the preabdominal length (the di- 
stance between the first rays of the 
pectoral and ventral fins) Salmo salar. 
b: Least depth of the tail more than 27 
% of the preabdominal length Salmo trutta. 
The natural relation between these forms asserts 
itself both in their changes of growth and their external 
differences of sex. These differences are most distinctly 
reflected in the characters here given for the said forms. 
Artedi, the father of modern ichthyology, on whose 
opinions and method Linnaeus, his contemporary and 
o 
friend, in great part based Ins system, was born in An- 
germanland. As a native of Northern Sweden, he was 
undoubtedly well acquainted with the opinions that pre- 
vailed at his time in this part of the country, where 
the Salmon forms are most abundant, as to the diffe- 
rences between them and as to their nomenclature. 
Where he applies to the Swedish Salmon forms their 
current Swedish names, we have in the latter, beyond 
doubt, the best possible clue to a correct under- 
standing of his scientific views on this head. 
In Aktedi’s Genera Piscium we find the following 
Salmons enumerated. 
1 : Salmo rostro ultra inferiorem maxillam ssepe prominente, in Swe- 
dish, Lax and Blanklax. 
2 : Salmo maeulis cinereis, caudfe extreme asquali, in Swedish, 
Gralax. 
3: Salmo latus; maeulis rubris nigrisque, cauda sequali, in Swedish, 
Laxoring, Borting etc. 
4: Salmo cauda bifurca; maeulis solum nigris, sulco longitudinali in 
ventre = Salmo lacustris , auett., from the Lakes of Geneva and 
Garda. 
5 : Salmo maxilla inferiore paullo longiore, maeulis rubris, in Swe- 
dish, Forell, Stenbit , Rdfislc, Backro etc. 
6 : Salmo oblongus duabus dentium lineis in palato, maeulis tan- 
tummodo nigris = the Huch of the Danube. 
7: Salmo pede minor, quinque dentium ordinibus in palato = a con- 
fusion, originating with Willughby, of Salmo carpio, auett., from 
Lake Garda, with the Gilt Gharr , an English form. 
8: Salmo vix pedalis; pinnis ventris rubris, maxilla inferiore paullo 
longiore = Lapplands-Rddingen. 
9 : Salmo lineis lateralibus sursum recurvis, cauda bifurca = Salmo 
ivmbla , auett., from the Lake of Geneva. 
10: Salmo pedalis; maxilla superiore longiore = Salmo salvelinus, 
auett., from the Lake of Geneva. 
In Artedi’s Synonymia Nominum Piscium the Sal- 
mons are given in the following order: 
1 = 1 in Genera Piscium 
1 1 
,, , = Trutta , auett. 
11 
11 
6: Salmo dorso fulvo: maeulis luteis, cauda bifurcata = Salmo sal- 
marinus, auett., from Trent (the Tyrol) 
7 = 9 in Genera Piscium 
8 = 6 „ „ 
9 = 4 ,, „ „ 
10 = 8 ,, ,, ,, , here with the Swedish names of Rotele 
and Boding. 
n = io„ 
12, Salmo minor, vulgari (1) similis. 
In the Descriptions Specierum Piscium, quos vivos 
prcRsertim dissecuit et examinavit etc., from which title, as 
well as from Linnaeus’s preface, it appears that Artedi 
there included all the species which he had personally been 
able to examine, we find only five species of the genus: 
1 = 1 in Genera Piscium. 
2=12 in Synonymia Nominum Piscium , is here explained as a young 
Salmon, though often more than 12 inches (i. e. about 30 cm.) 
long, bearing the name of Laxunge at Elfkarleby, and differing 
from the Blanlclax only in the comparatively larger and blunter 
head, the denser black spots, and the slight bifurcation of the 
caudal fin. 
3 = 3 in Genera, Piscium. 
4 5 ,, ,, ,, 
5 = 8 „ ,, „ 
When LiNNiEUS framed on this foundation his 
scheme of the Swedish Salmons, he adopted in his 
Fauna Suecica (1746) the following: 
Sp. 306 = No. 1 in Art., Gen. Piscium. 
,, 307 = ,, 2 ,, ,, ,, ,, , with the remark: “It oc- 
curs in company with the preceding form, and I should 
scarcely consider it to be specifically distinct therefrom' 1 . 
,, 308 = No. 3 in Art., Gen. Pise, according to the synonymy, but 
with a new diagnosis: Salmo maeulis nigris brunneo cin- 
ctis: pinna pectorali punctis sex, and with the Swedish 
name of Laxoring altered to Orlax. 
,, 309 = No. 5 in Art., Gen. Pise., but with the word paullo 
omitted from the diagnosis, and with the addition of the 
Swedish name of Laxoring. 
„ 310 = No. 8 in Art., Gen. Pise. 
Now Gisler tells us in a series of papers (in the 
Transactions of the Swedish Academy of Science for 
1751 and 1752) which are well worth reading even at 
the present day, that the Blanklax was called Grdlax in 
Norrland, “when it had spent itself in the rivers and had 
become quite lean and gray, with a long hook at the 
tip of the lower jaw, especially in the males, after the 
flesh had wasted away”. Gisler, it is true, recognised 
only three Norrland species, namely 
1 Spec. Lax, 
2 ,, Laxoring, 
3 ,, Stenbit etc. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
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