Salmo, fishes, malacopterygious. 
179 
Gen. XXI. SALMO. Salmon. — The first dorsal fin as near 
the head as the ventrals. Teeth strong, numerous. Gill- 
fiap of more than eight rays. Under-jaw of the males 
turned up. 
1. Tail forked. 
a. Migratory from the sea. 
40. S. Salar. Common Salmon. — Upper jaw longest ; teeth 
on the vomer ; anal fin with about thirteen rays. 
S. Merr. Pin. 188. Sibb. Scot. 24. Will. Ich. 189 — Saimo rostro ultra 
inferiorem maxillam ssepe prominente, Artedi^ Ich. Syn. 22.-— S. Salar, 
Linn. Syst. i. 509. Penn. Brit. ZooL iii. 284. — Gleisiedyn, Eog, 
Maran Taliesin ; G, Bradan. — In the sea and rivers. 
This fish seldom exceeds 3 feet in length, and weighs from 10 to upwards 
of 70 pounds in weight. The back is of a bluish- black colour, passing into 
grey and white on the sides and belly, more or less spotted above the lateral 
line. The following is the ordinary number of rays in the fins, — D. 14, P. 14, 
V. 10, A. 13, C. 21. Salmon leave the sea, and* ascend the rivers through- 
out the summer season. Having reached the suitable station, they pair, and, 
in company, proceed to excavate a furrow, in the gravelly bed of the shallow 
or running water at the top or bottom of the deeper pools. Into this furrow 
the milt and roe are simultaneously deposited, and covered. This operation 
occupies nearly a fortnight. The eggs sometimes amount to 20,000. When 
the fish have spav/ned, or become kelts, they betake themselves to the deep 
pools, and then proceed to the sea, the males commencingthe journey earlier 
than the females. Their favourite food in the sea is the sand-eel. The fry 
leave the spawning-groove about March, retire to pools, and proceed, ac- 
cording to circumstances, in myriads along the easy water at the margin of 
the river, with their heads against the stream, until they reach the tide in 
the estuary, where, like the kelts, which frequently go down at the same 
time, they retire to the deepest part of the channel, and disappear in the sea. 
These samlets, smoults or smouts, are regarded by many as reappearing in 
the estuaries a few months afterwards in the character oi grilses., of from 3 to 
9 pounds weight, according to the lateness of the season. The reader who 
wishes to obtain accurate information regarding the habits of this species, its 
Economical and commercial value, may consult with advantage the “Reports 
from the Select Committee (of the House of Commons) on the Salmon Fish- 
eries of the United Kingdom,” in 1824 and 1825, and the Edin. Phil. Journ. 
No. xxiv. p. 335. et seq. 
yi 41. S. HucJio. Bull-trout. — Upper-jaw longest. No teeth 
in the vcmer ; anal-fin with about ten rays. 
Trutta fluviatilis Huch Germamiis dicta, Will Ich. 197, and the Scurf, 
ib. 193 — S. H. Bloch. Ich. tab. 100 In the sea and rivers. 
This species is little inferior to the salmon in size. Its shape is more 
lengthened. The colour nearly the same. The flesh white and insipid. In 
the upper-jaw there is a single row of teeth on the maxillaries, intermaxil- 
laries, and palatines, but none in the middle on the vomer. A single row of 
teeth on the lower-jaw. The tongue with a row of teeth on each side. The 
rays of the fins of one which I examined were B. 11, B. 13, P. 14, V. 10^ 
A. 10. 
