SALMON TRIBE. 
5°3 
nets.” Dr. Guillemard adds that “ every year the various kinds of salmon arrive 
at the mouths of the Kamschatkan rivers with surprising regularity. The date of 
the advent of these different species extends from May to mid-August; but each 
has its own time of arrival, which, from its constancy, appears to be more or less 
independent of seasonal influences. A few fish apparently remain at or about the 
river mouths during the summer, and eventually return to the sea, but these are so 
few as to be scarcely worthy of mention. The vast majority—practically all, in 
fact—ascend the streams to spawn, and, having once done so, die. In the case of 
some species every fish appears to perish; in others, a few get back to the sea.” 
The Oriental salmon (0. orientalis ) of Kamschatka commonly grows to a weight of 
from 50 to 60 lbs.; and the flesh is said to be superior in flavour to that of any 
other member of the family. 
The beautiful and delicately flavoured little fish known as smelts 
Smelts. J 
are represented by three species, one of which ( Osmerus eperlanws) is 
common smelt (i nat. size). 
an inhabitant of the seas and many fresh waters of Northern and Central Europe, 
while the second (0. vividescens), which is perhaps only a variety, is confined to 
the opposite side of the Atlantic, and the third (0. thaleichthys ) is found on the 
coasts of California. These fish form a kind of connecting link between the 
salmon and its allies and the under-mentioned Coregonus, but internally differ 
from both, the appendages to the intestine being short and few in number, and the 
eggs small, while the teeth are strongly developed. The scales are of moderate 
size ; the cleft of the mouth is wide, with the maxillary bone extending nearly or 
quite to the hinder margin of the eye; the teeth of the upper jaw are much smaller 
than those of the lower; the vomer is armed with a transverse series of teeth, 
several of which are tusk-like; the palatines and pterygoids bear conical teeth; 
