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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
FRESH-WATER SMELTS 
Throughout the geographical range of the smelt there are localities where they 
are permanently fresh-water residents. They are so-called “ landlocked ” or fresh- 
water smelt. It has been assumed that in times long past some smelts remained in 
fresh-water lakes and formed fresh-water races and perhaps species. 
Bloch (1796) recognized two kinds of smelts in Germany, one of which was marine 
and the other a fresh-water form. According to him, the fresh-water smelts occur 
in many lakes that have sandy bottoms, and they are rarely taken except when 
especially searched for in those places. 
Reuter (1883), who does not distinguish between salt and fresh-water smelt, 
says that in Finland the smelt is distributed over the whole country, as far north as 68°. 
Goode (1884) says that the smelt is found landlocked in cool lakes, especially 
those of Norway, and also in many of the lakes of northern Germany, and even as 
far south as Bavaria. 
Fresh-water smelts are mentioned by Pallas (1811) in certain lakes of Germany 
and Russia; Lake Pskov. In Great Britain Regan (1911) cited Rostherne Mere in 
Cheshire as inhabited by the fresh-water form. Smitt (1893) does not distinguish 
the Swedish fresh-water form as specifically distinct from the salt-water form. Jordan 
(1878) wrote: 
In regard to the American smelt, there are several landlocked forms in the waters of Maine which 
have been described as species, but which are probably local races. 
However, only two fresh-water forms of Maine smelts have been described and 
named as distinct species, and these by Cope in 1877, one from Wilton Pond and 
the other from “ Cobossicontic ” (Cobosseecontee) Lake, in Kennebec County, in 
southwest Maine. He stated that Wilton Pond is near the head of the southwest 
branch of the Kennebec River in southwest Maine. 
Cope also remarked that landlocked Osmeri occur in the lakes of Norway, and 
according to Professor Esmark, of Christiania (Oslo), they are found in Lake Mjosen, 
which is 500 feet above the sea and discharges into a stream that has a very high fall; 
also in Nors Vandsjo, near the town of Moss, and in the Stinksild. 
In Canada, Halkett (1913) records a fresh-water smelt, under the name of 
Osmerus mordax Mitchill, from Lac des Isles, Gatineau District, some 60 miles north 
of Ottawa. In a footnote (on p. 55) he says: 
It is known that this species of fish exists land-locked in fresh water lakes in New Bruns- 
wick, Nova Scotia, and in the State of Maine, but its occurrence in a lake so far away from the sea 
as Lac des Isles, is perhaps worthy of mention. 
In a letter Dr. Philip Cox, of the University of New Brunswick, informed the 
present writer that a diminutive fresh-water smelt occurs in Lake Utopia. 
That smelts occur in tributary waters of the St. Lawrence is indicated by Cham- 
bers (1903), who stated that they were landlocked in some Canadian lakes as well as 
in the United States, mentioning particularly Lakes St. John and Memphremagog. 
For many years it was known to occur in Lake Champlain. Thompson (1842), 
who did not realize that it was a permanent inhabitant of Lake Champlain, said that 
it occasionally made its appearance there and was caught in considerable numbers. 
