PLATE XLVIII. 
tanen in the River Thames, though certainly none so considerable in 
this respect as that recorded by Mr. Pennant. The Smelts mentioned 
m Narborough’s Voyage, that are said to be taken in the Straits of 
Magellan, some of which measured twenty inches in length, and eight 
m circumference, were most likely not of this species. 
The smell of this fish has an highly odoriferous fragrance peculiar 
to itself; which has been compared by some to that of cucumbers 
recently gathered from the garden, and by others it is thought to 
resemble rather that of violets. Yet this idea does not prevail univer- 
Sa lly, for there are many persons to whom the fragance arising either 
from cucumbers or violets are extremely grateful who are disgusted 
wnh that of Smelts. Linnaeus tells us there is found in the Baltic Sea 
two varieties of the Smelt, one of which he calls Nors, and speaks of 
lts having a very fcetid smell, which in the early Spring, when the 
peasants come to buy it, fills all the streets of Upsal with the smell : 
adding, that at this season of the year, agues prevail there. Bloch has 
keen erroneously misled into the belief that the streets of London are 
sometimes affected by the stench of Smelts in the same manner. 
4 
In the first dorsal fin of the Smelt delineated in the Plate, we 
unted eleven rays : in the pectoral fin twelve rays: ventral eight: 
anal twurtcen : caudal twenty. one. 
