ZOOLOGY. 
325 
2. SALMO PAUCIDENS, Ricli. 
Weak-tootlied Salmon. 
Salmopaucidens, Rich. F. B. A. Ill, 222 —Herbert, Sup. to Fish 8 ? Fishing, &c., 1850, 36. 
Sp. Ch.—T his species, described by Richardson from the notes of Dr. Gairdner, and from some fragments received, I have 
not yet been able to obtain. The specific characters deduced from Richardson’s description are as follows : Dorsal outline 
nearly straight. Back of head and body bluish gray. Belly white. Tail and fins unspotted. Caudal forked. Teeth sparingly 
scattered, and feeble. 51 
They reach, according to Dr. Gairdner, an average weight of three or four pounds, and 
ascend the Columbia in the spring, in company with the 8. quinnat and S. Gairdneri. If not the 
young of some other species already known, it must certainly be considered as distinct. Sir 
John Richardson, in F. B. A., Part III, p. 223, seems to think it the same as the “ red-char ” of 
Lewis & Clark, and supposes that the S. Scouleri may have also been thus named by those 
travellers. It is very difficult to determine what species they really alluded to. They say: 
“The red-char are rather broader in proportion to their length than the common salmon; the 
scales are also imbricated, but rather larger; the rostrum exceeds the under jaw more, and the 
teeth are neither so large nor so numerous as those of the salmon. Some of them are almost 
entirely red on the belly and sides; others are much more white than the salmon; and none of 
them are variegated with the dark spots which mark the body of the other.” 
As to the red color on the sides and belly, mentioned by those explorers, it is a mark of but 
little specific importance, as the females, and occasionally the males of the S. quinnat , S. Scouleri , 
S. canis, and probably those of several other species, become red, and sometimes purplish, 
after remaining some time in fresh water. Indeed, it is one of the first indications of the 
declining powers of the fish; and, instead of being an evidence of high vital action, seems to be 
scorbutic in its character, forcibly reminding one of the redness caused in the human subject by 
the peculiar cachexia which produces scurvy and purpura haemorrhagica. 
It seems, from this, not unlikely that the term “red-char” was applied to several species 
when in bad condition. 
No Oregon salmon with which I am familiar agrees in the characteristics given of S. paucidens. 
There is, however, a kind of salmon which runs up the small rivers below the “ Great Falls” 
(Dalles) that is said to be very bright and silvery, and called, in consequence, the '■'■whit esalmon” 
by the settlers, and a river which they ascend in great numbers by preference is named, from 
that circumstance, the White Salmon river. It is possible that this ‘ ‘ white salmon 1 ’ may be the 
silvery-white salmon-trout of Lewis and Clark, and perhaps identical with Dr. Gairdner’s weak¬ 
toothed salmon. —(See beyond.) Lewis and Clark say: + “ Of the salmon-trout we observe two 
species differing only in color. They are seldom more than two feet in length, and much nar¬ 
rower in proportion than the salmon or red-char. The jaws are nearly of the same length, and 
are furnished with a single series of small subulate straight teeth, not so long nor so large as 
those of the salmon. * * * * One of the kinds, of a silvery white color on the belly and 
sides, and a bluish light brown on the back and head, is found below the Great Falls , and asso¬ 
ciates with the red-char in little rivulets and creeks. It is about two feet eight inches long, and 
weighs ten pounds.” * * * * “The white kind found below the falls is in excellent order 
when the salmon are out of season and unfit for use.’ ’ 
® The young of most species of salmon have the tails/orfarf. In the present case the small teeth, forked tails, and small 
size may indicate the young of a species already known, or of which the adult is yet to be described. 
f See quotation in Rich. F. B. A., Part 3, p. 163. — The italics are our own. 
