CAPELIN. 
879 
in four longitudinal bands®, one on each side of the 
body above the lateral line, and one along each side 
of the belly, at the boundary between the ventral side 
and the side of the body, beginning below the posterior 
part of the pectoral fins, when these fins are at rest, 
interrupted at the ventral fins, but recommencing at 
about the middle of their length and extending along 
the base of the anal fin. On the elevated base of this 
fin, as well as on the lower margin of the peduncle 
of the tail, the remaining scales (c) are larger than on 
the rest of the body and more or less oblique, with 
one corner more or less elongated. In the above- 
mentioned longitudinal bands the scales are elongated 
to a villiform shape, but covered to the very tip with 
skin, in which lie scattered pigment-cells, most nu- 
merous and most constant at the tip of each scale, 
rare and most scattered on the proximal part thereof. 
Comparatively large scales form a, lobe on each side of the 
vent, and this lobe is distinguishable even in the female. 
The coloration in essential respects resembles that 
of the Smelt. In the Capelin too the upper parts of 
the head and body and the hind part of the tail are 
transparent. The back is green; the sides are silvery 
with black dots, but the operculum and suboperculum 
yellowish (with a golden or brassy lustre); the belly 
is white. Our figures, however, depict the spawning- 
dress, in which the back is darker, and the head some- 
times entirely covered with a sooty black pigment. 
Below the above-mentioned villous bands of the males 
runs a more or less prominent, yellowish streak. The 
fins are transparent, of a light grayish colour; the 
caudal fin is darkest, especially at the base, the pe- 
duncle of the tail being also more or less blackish. 
The internal organs too are similar to those of 
the Smelt. The liver is small, only the middle and 
the left lobes being present. It extends back to about 
a line with the middle of the pectoral fins. The ciecum- 
like stomach extends almost back to the anterior ex- 
tremity of the pelvic bones. The pylorus is furnished 
with 6 or 7 rather large appendages, four directed 
forwards and three backwards, two of the latter on 
the right side of the intestine. The pyloric coil and 
the intestine are as in the Smelt. The spleen is nar- 
row and ribbon-shaped, lying to the right, at about 
the middle of the stomach, between the forepart of the 
intestine and the air-bladder, which is comparatively 
short and occupies a little more than the middle third 
of the dorsal margin of the abdominal cavity. The 
testes are double, but the right is considerably smaller 
than the left, and only the left ovary is present, its 
inward oviduct resembling that of the Smelt. The 
peritoneum is sooty black inside, but its outer coat is 
silvery white. 
The Capelin is a boreo-arctic species from the 
northern regions both of the Atlantic and the Pacific. 
Off Spitsbergen none of the numerous Swedish expe- 
ditions has met with the Capelin; but at certain times 
it is extremely common on the coasts of Norwegian 
Finmark, Iceland, Newfoundland, Greenland, Alaska, 
the Aleutian Islands, and Kamchatka. From the White 
Sea the Royal Museum of Stockholm has received the 
species through Lieutenant H. Sandeberg. Its occur- 
rence in shoals on the Norwegian coast does not really 
extend beyond Trondhjem Fjord; farther south it is 
more and more scattered, and the Capelins from Chris- 
tiania Fjord sent to the Royal Museum in 1842 by 
Professor Esmakk must rank as a rare find. On the 
other side of the Atlantic the Capelin goes farther 
south-, one of the consequences of the Arctic current 
which follows the coast of North America. According 
to Jordan and Gilbert its range extends to Cape Cod; 
but Bean states that it does not occur much south of 
Halifax in Nova Scotia, and is never met with on the 
coast of the United States. Richardson found the spe- 
cies in Coronation Gulf, whence it appears that in this 
quarter the range of the Capelin extends between the 
Atlantic and the Pacific; but off the extreme north of 
Asia it has never yet been seen. 
To all the above-mentioned points in which the 
Capelin resembles the Smelt, we should add its rank 
odour, which calls to mind that of stale cucumbers. 
In its manner of life too the Capelin is very like the 
Smelt. But it is of a more pelagic nature, and never 
enters quite fresh waters. Its haunts and its life be- 
tween the spawning-seasons are little known; but ac- 
cording to J uel b it is frequently met with in summer 
“ According to Fabricius these bands are sometimes wanting, even during the spawning-season, and the Esquimaux of Greenland have 
a special name ( Sennersuitsut ) for such males. That the scales in these bands only gradually develop the villiform shape, being at first tri- 
angular, appears from the remark on Capelin No. 22 in my Riksmuseets Salmonider. 
b Norsk Fiskeritidende, 1892, p. 4. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
Ill 
