SMELT. 
869 
of the external sexual characters, may be expressed in 
the following table of averages: 
Average height of the anal tin in % 
of the length of the body, in 
Osmerus 
dent ex. 
Osmerus 
spirinchus. 
Osmerus 
eperlanus. 
6.9 
7.0 
9.2 
At the age of 
Nors 
9.6 
Stornors ... 
7.1 
(7.i) 
8.6 
Slom cf - 
6.81 
6.9 | 
8.9 I r 
> 6.8 
, > 7.o 
■ 9.2 
„ 9 
6.9 J 
7.2 1 
9.3 | 
Storslom — 
— 
6.9 
9.3 
The average in this relation for the whole genus 
Osmerus is 7 '7, so that in the first two forms the 
average falls short of this amount — both of them 
showing almost the same average — but exceeds it in 
the last form. In the first two the percentages sink 
uniformly with increasing age. This is also the case 
during youth in Osmerus eperlanus; but after the stor- 
nors stage its course of development is reversed — the 
female characters gain the ascendency in the basin of 
the Atlantic. Here, as in several other respects, it 
appears that the course of development was originally 
common, but has diverged in connexion with a geogra- 
phical separation, which in the Smelts, as well as in 
the Salmons, probably dates from the Tertiary Period, 
from the elevation of the Rocky Mountains in North 
America". 
The genus Osmerus was established by ArtedP, 
who included within its limits, however, the modern 
Saurns, a Scopeloid genus. 
THE SMELT (sw. norsen). 
OSMERUS EPERLANUS c . 
Plate XLI, fig. 1. 
Number of gill- rakers on the front of the first branchial arch 33 — 37, 23 — 26 of them being situated on the 
lower part of the arch. Height of the anal fin ( length of its longest rag) more than 8 % of the length of the 
bodg or than 36 % of the length of the head. Length of the middle caudal rags less than s / i of that of the 
longest anal rag. 
R. hr. 7(8); 
D. 
(2)3 
8 — 9’ 
P 1 . y -!■ 
12 — 14’ ‘ 10 — 11(12) ’ ' 7 ’ 
(J. x + 1 + 17 + 1 + x; L. lat. (58)62 — 64(68); L. tr. (supra 
pinn. ventr.) 13; Vert. 60 — 62. 
Syn. Epelan de mer et Epelan de riviere , Belon., Nat., Div. Poiss. 
p. 282 et 284; Eperlanus , Rondel., Pise. Fluv., p. 196; 
Spirinchus et Stincus, Gesn., Paralip. p. 29; Spirinchus , 
Schonev., Iclithyol. Slesv. Hols., p. 70; Osmerus rndiis 
pinnae ani septendecim, Art., Iclithyol., Syn. Pise., p. 21, 
Descr. Spec. Pise., p. 45; Lin., Fna Suec., ed. I, p. 118. 
Salmo Eperlanus, Lin., Syst. Nat., ed. X, tom. I, p. 310; 
Fna Suec., ed. II, p. 124; Bl., Fiscli. Deutschl., part. I, 
p. 179, tab. XXVIII, fig. 2(4- var. S. eperlano- mar inns, 
p. 182, tab. cit., fig. 1); Retz., Fna Suec. Lin., p. 348; 
Lacep. (Osmerus), Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. V, p. 231; Pall. 
(Salmo), Zoogp. Ross. Asiat., tom. Ill, p. 386; Mitch., 
Trans. Lit., Phil. Soc. N. Y., vol. I, p. 435; Nilss. (Osme- 
rus), Prodr. Iclithyol. Scand., p. 12; Ekstr., Vet.-Akad. 
Handl. 1834, p. 7; Yarr., Hist. Brit. Fish., ed. I, vol. II, 
p. 75; Kr., Damn. Fisk., vol. Ill, pp. 1 et 1215; Cuv., 
Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. XXI, p. 371, tab. 620; Lloyd, 
Scandin. Adventures, vol. I, p. 121; Nilss., Skand. Fna, 
Fisk., p. 433; Widegr., Fiskfn, Fisker. Norrb. L., Landtbr. 
Akad. Hand!. 1861, p. 9 (sep.); Sieb., Siisswasserf. Mit- 
teleur., p. 271; Mgrn, Finl. Fiskfna (disp. Helsingf. 1863), 
p. 65; Gthr, Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. VI, p. 166; Fed- 
ders., Tidskr. Fisk. Kbhvn, IV (1870), p. 100; Coll., Forli. 
Vid. Selsk. Chrnia 1874, Tillaegsk. p. 162; Malm, Ghgs, 
Bch. Fna, p. 549; Seidl., Fna Balt., p. 95; Winth., Naturh. 
Tidskr., Kbhvn, ser. 3, vol. XII, p. 44; Fedders., ibid., 
p. 78; Bncke, Fiscli., Fischer., Fiscliz. O., W. Preuss., p. 
155; Mela, Vert. Fenn., p. 344; tab. X; Day, Fish. Gt. 
Brit. Irel., vol. II, p. 121, tab. CXXI, fig. 1; Mob., Hoke. 
Fiscli. Osts., p. 128; Norback, Handl. Fiskev., Fislcafv., p. 
396; Reut., Sundji., Finl. Fisk., tab. XV; Sm. Riksm. Balm., 
1. c. ; Lillj., St)., Norg. Fna, Fisk., p. 630. 
Atherina inordax , Mitch., Trans. Lit., Phil. Soc. N. Y., vol. I, 
p. 446; Gill. (Osmerus), Smithson. Misc. Coll., No. 283, 
p. 32; Jord., Gilb., Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 16, p. 293; 
Br. Goode, Fisher., Fish. Industr. U. S., sect. I, p. 543, 
tab. 199. 
Salmo (Osmerus) spirinchus, Pall., Zoogr ., vol. Ill, p. 387; 
Cuv., Val., 1. c., p. 387. — nec Lillj., nec Sm. 
Osmerus viridescens, Lesueuk, Jouru. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad., 
vol. I, p. 230; Dek., N. Y. Fna, part. IV, Fish., p. 243, 
tab. 39, fig. 124; Cuv., Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. XXI, 
p. 388; Stor.. Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, Sc., vol. VI, p. 
a Cf. Smitt, Rik-smuseets Salmonider, p. 171, § (5). 
b Ichthyol., Gen. Pise., p. 10. 
c A Latinized form of the French eperlan, which according to Rondelet refers to the pearly lustre of the coloration. 
