148 
Malacopterous Abdominals. FISHES. Salmonoids. 
is retailed at a Spanish dollar per quart bottle. Red 
rice is a glutinous variety of the common rice steeped 
in an infusion of cochineal, and is imported frorh China 
at an expense of a quarter of a dollar per pound. The 
Chinese settled in the Straits of Malacca prepare a 
similar condiment from other fishes {Polynemi) cut 
ill slices, and from prawns. 
Family IX. — SALMONOIDS (Salmonidce). 
Plate 3, figs. 14, 15. 
A family composed of Malacopterous Cycloid Ahdo- 
domiuals, with a soft rayless second dorsal called an 
adipose fin ; the upper border of the mouth formed by 
the premaxillaries and maxillavies conjointly ; large 
and simple air-bladder, without contractions ; numerous 
pyloric caeca ; pseudobranchiae on the gill-cover ; a 
moderate number of branchiostegals ; and bony gill- 
rakers. The genera are — Salmo, Fario, Salar, Osme- 
rus, Mallotus, Argentina, Thymallus, Coregonus, and 
Stenodus, comprising the Salmons, Trouts, Graylings, 
Gwyniads, and other well-known fishes of our rivers 
and lakes. So much has been published on their natu- 
ral history, and on angling and other modes of taking 
them, in popular works, that we may be excused from 
entering into detail here on these subjects. They are 
natives of the northern hemisphere, and scarcely go 
southwards beyond the 30th parallel of latitude, not 
having been detected beyond the northern slope of the 
Himalayas and of Mount Atlas in the eastern hemi- 
sphere, or the high lands of Mexico in the western, but 
they are exceedingly numerous in the temperate and 
Fig. 37. 
Scouler s Salmon (Salmo scouleri). 
colder regions to the north. Many of them which 
resemble the Chipeoids in external form, maybe readily 
distinguished by the presence of the adipose fin, and 
the absence of serratures on the belly. 
Large Indian populations are supported in Rupert’s 
Land and on the west coast of America by the fisheries 
of Salmon and Gwyniads, and the species of the latter 
known in Arctic America as the White-fish, is scarcely 
equalled, certainly not excelled, by any other fish as 
an article of diet. The great St. Lawrence lakes yield 
vast quantities to the commerce of the United States ; 
and similar species, nearly as much prized, inhabit the 
waters of Northern Asia. Mr. Atkinson speaks of the 
Omul {Coregonus) as being caught in enormous quanti- 
ties in Lake Baikal, from whence it is sent preserved by 
salt to all parts of Siberia. He says that it is a deli- 
cious fish when fresh, and when pickled is equal to the 
best Dutch herring. 
Family X.— CIIARACINOIDS {Characinidm). 
This family group was by Linnaeus included in bis 
comprehensive genus Salmo, but Miiller and Troschel 
separated them, expounding their reasons for doing so 
ill an able monagraph published in their “ Horae Ichthyo- 
logicae.” Most of the family are South American, 
African, or Asiatic fluviatile fishes, comparatively few 
being oceanic. 
They are characterized as Abdominal Malacopteres, 
with scaleless heads, but covered on their bodies with 
cycloid scales (a few only having naked bodies) ; pos- 
sessing no pseudobranchiae ; having the orifice of the 
mouth formed of the premaxillaries, maxillaries, and 
mandible ; villiform pharyngeal teeth ; a caecal stomach ; 
numerous pancreatic caeca ; and an air-bladder divided 
into two chambers by a transverse constriction, its 
fore-chamber being connected to the acoustic organ by 
a chain of ossicles. There are a few instances among 
these fish of an air-bladder with one chamber only. 
The pneumatic tube issues from the posterior chamber, 
or much more rarely from the constriction between the 
chambers. Branchiostegals four or five in number. 
These fishes generally have smooth bellies, in which 
they differ from the Halecoids ; but some, as Tometes, 
have the keel of the belly serrated like the herrings. 
Like the typical Salmonoids they have an adipose 
posterior dorsal fin. 
The genera are — Ciirimatvs ; Anodns (Spix); Prochdodus; 
Stevardia (Gill); Microdus (Kner); Leporimis; Clnlodus (Mil. 
u. Fr.) ; Epicyrtus ; Parodon; iSalminus ; Ilemiodus ; Cithar- 
inus ; Schizodon (Agassiz) ; Rhytiodus (Kner) ; Piabuca ; Dis- 
tichodus; Nematopoma (Gill); Poscilurichthys (id.); Coryno- 
poiiia (id.); Plecoglossus; Tetragunopterus; Bryconops (Kner); 
Bryciims; Piubticina; Gaslropelecus; Atesles; Myletes; Tometes; 
ilyleus; Mylesinus; Chalceus ; Chalcinus ; Serrasalmo ; Pygo- 
centrus ; Pyyopristis ; Catoprion ; Ilydrocyon ; Cytiopotumus ; 
Cynodon ; Agoniates ; Xiphorhamphus or Xiphorhynclms ; 
Xiphosloma; Salanx ; Uydropardus; Gonostoma; Chauliodus; 
Astronesthes (Richardsoii) ; Aplochilon* 
The Characinoids may be considered as the tropical 
* Erytlirimis and Macrodon placed in this family by Miiller 
are, in consequence of wanting the adipose fin, ranged by Agassiz 
after the Halecoids. Mulacosteus of Ayres also wants the fin. 
