WIIITE-SALMON. 
889 
and small fishes, in short nearly all the animal life offered 
it by the water where it lives, enter into its diet; and 
in its greedy haste it swallows leaves and fir-cones that 
fall into the water, mistaking them for insects. It seems 
to be especially partial to caddis-worms (the larvae of 
Stone-flies), the coverings of which are generally to be 
found in its stomach. But mollusks are also one of its 
favourite foods; in a male 55 cm. long the stomach was 
full of entire shells, an inch long, of pond-snails ( Limncea ). 
Fishes of the Minnow’s size fall a prey to the full-grown 
Grayling. Grayling large and small are besides roe- 
eaters. When the Salmons spawn, they keep watch, 
and feed on the ova; but in requital they are harassed 
by the Salmons, in whose maw many a Grayling has 
perished. This probably explains how, where food is 
plentiful, Grayling and Trout can thrive in company, 
but where food is scarce, the former must give way. 
As the habits of the Grayling in essential respects 
resemble those of the Trout, the same fishing methods 
are used for them both. The Grayling, like the Trout, 
readily takes a fly, and in many places gives the fly-fisher 
good sport; but owing to its weak jaws a certain amount 
of care is necessary not to tear the hook out and lose 
the fish. Less fastidious anglers use a bait of worms 
and small fishes, for example Minnows. But the Gray- 
ling is taken most commonly and in the greatest quan- 
tity with net and seine. 
The flesh of the Grayling has always been held in 
esteem. It is white, of good flavour, and easy of di- 
gestion, suitable for even weak stomachs. It is there- 
fore set higher even than that of the Salmon. “E'm 
Ac sell ist ein Kheingraf, ein Salm isf ein Herr," is an 
old saying to be found in Gesner. The Grayling is 
best in autumn and winter, worst, of course, just after 
the spawning. Not only its flesh has enjoyed a good 
reputation; in ancient medicine its fat. ( oleum Aeschice) 
was widely employed. When the fish is in good con- 
dition, the whole intestinal canal is embedded in rich 
fat, and the oil extracted from this has been used espe- 
cially in eye and ear diseases and to cure cutaneous 
diseases and burns. Linnaeus states that, the Lapps 
employ the gastric juice of the Grayling in the prepara- 
tion of cheese, to curdle the reindeer milk, simply laying 
the whole intestinal canal in the milk. 
Besides Ha spa, a name which may perhaps be 
explained by the use of Asp among the Swedish fisher- 
men both for large Cyprinoids and large Gwyniad- 
fishes, Nilsson and Lilljeborg mention from Lake 
Wetter Val, and from Norrkoping Oreval, as names 
applied to the common Grayling. 
Before proceeding to the Gwyniads, we may briefly | near to the limits of our fauna, though it has not yet 
mention a. genus whose geographical range approaches : been found in Scandinavia. 
Genus STENODUS. 
Teeth small and disappearing during growth, hut at first set in two or three rows on the interm axillaries and in 
the anterior part of the prominent lower jaw, in a card on the tongue, and in a dense, continuous, two-armed card 
on the anterior part of the palate ( the head of the vomer and the front of the palatine hones). Length of the 
maxillaries about 50 — 43 %, and, of the lower jaw about 78 — 70 %, of that of the head reduced. Breadth of the 
snout across the articular knobs of the maxillaries about, equal to that of the interorbital space, which is about 1 . 
(less than 23 %) of the length of the head. Base of the dorsal fin as a rule somewhat shorter than that of the 
anal and less than 13 % of the length of the body, but, more than 1 / 2 of the length of the head reduced. Pyloric 
appendages well -dev eloped. Scales middle-sized, about 90 — 110 in the lateral line, winch is complete. 
This genus occupies an especially remarkable in- 
termediate position between the Smelt and Vendace 
groups. In external appearance it so closely resembles 
the latter that the confusion between them which has 
made its way into literature is easily explainable. But 
Stenodus, which becomes as large as the largest Sal- 
mons, does not correspond in its characters to the Scan- 
dinavian Yendaces until it has attained a size far 
greater than that reached by them. In the structure 
of the ventral fins Stenodus is approximated to Argen- 
tina, the outermost ray, which in the rest of the fa- 
mily appears merely as a more or less rudimentary 
