THE SMELTS 
221 
ATLANTIC MARINE SMELTS 
RANGE 
Smelt of one species or another occur on both Atlantic coasts. In Europe they 
range from England and France northward to the White Sea; in North America 
they are recorded from the Delaware River to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Bloch 
(1796) wrote that the salt-water smelt lives in the depths of the North and the Baltic 
Seas, whence it leaves and appears upon the coasts in November, December, and 
January. Pennant (1776) said that it inhabits the seas of Europe, but he believed 
it never was found as far south as the Mediterranean. The Seine is mentioned as 
one of the French rivers inhabited by it, but he could not authoritatively say that 
it occurs south of that stream. He said that it inhabits the littoral waters of the 
British Isles throughout the year, never going very far from the shores except when 
it ascends the rivers. Reuter (1883) says that it is met with in the White Sea but 
not on the coast of the Arctic Ocean; at Hogland and around Kokar it is rarely met 
with, but it is to be found in Sweden, southern Norway, Denmark, and northern 
Germany, and along the coasts of the North Sea. He said it is found very seldom 
Fig. 1.— Eastern smelt, Osmerus mordax (Mitch.) Gill. 
on the west coast of Sweden and not at all on that of Norway. Smitt (1895, p. 872) 
states that generally speaking the smelt is confined to a zone comprised between the 
fortieth and sixtieth degrees of latitude. He mentions, however, that in the Baltic 
it is found up to the head of the Gulf of Bothnia. He wrote: 
South of France it is unknown, and it is not common south of the northwest of that country; 
but from this region, including the British Isles and the Continent, up to the southeast of Norway, 
throughout the greater part of Sweden, in Finland, and in Russia, it occurs, and in suitable local- 
ities is common, within the basins of the North Sea and the Baltic. 
Goode (1884) says that it is found in southern Sweden as far north as the 
Christiania Fjord district, latitude 62°, and south as far as the entrance to the Loire, 
latitude 47°, ascending the Seine as far as Rouen; also that it is found in the Baltic, 
and entering the Gulf of Finland becomes a member of the fauna of Russia. 
Cunningham (1896) states that it is found in the Thames and Medway but not 
on the southern coast — for example Plymouth — where a fish belonging to a different 
family is called a smelt. He says that it is found in the Firth and the Tay, the 
rivers entering the Solway, the Dee, and the Mersey, but that it is not known to 
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