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MALACOPTERYGII. — SALMONID^. 
Family IV. SalmonidvE. 
{ Salmons.) 
If the number of component members in any 
Family were the sole criterion of its importance, 
the present group would occupy a much less space 
in our pages than the preceding, containing, as it 
does, barely one-third of the number of its species. 
Yet when we think of the various Salmons and 
Trouts of Europe and America, and add to them 
the excellent and beautiful Char, the Smelt, 
small but delicious, the Grayling, Vendace, Gwy- 
niad, Powan, and Pollan, the Capelin of New- 
foundland, and multitudes of other foreign species 
unknown by English names, but valuable as the 
food of man, we shall be ready to acknowledge 
that the Salmonidce constitute a very important 
and useful Family in the great Class of Fishes. 
The typical Salmons are distinguished for the 
graceful, swelling symmetry of their form ; thick 
and plump in the centre, and tapering to each 
extremity. Their body is covered with large and 
well-formed scales ; all the rays of their fins are 
soft ; behind the dorsal there is a small spurious 
fin, consisting of a doubling of the skin filled with 
fatty substance, but destitute of rays; this is 
usually known as the adipose (or fat) fin. In 
general the mouth is well furnished with teeth ; 
their intestine has many caecal appendages ; and 
they all have an air-bladder. 
The well-known fishes of this Fatnily are 
powerful, bold, and voracious; in general, how- 
ever, they do not prey upon other fishes, but 
