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Show 222 PISCES. of the abdomen covered with plates; intestines of a moderate thick. ness.( 1) FAMILY IV. SALMONIDES. The Salmonides, according to Linnreus, form but a single great genus, clearly characterized by a scaly body, with a first dorsal whose rays are all soft, followed by a second one small and adipose, that is, formed of skin filled with fat, and unsup· ported by rays. It comprises fishes with numerous creca and a natatory bladder; nearly all of them ascend rivers, and are highly esteemed. They are naturally voracious. The struc· ture and armature of the jaws are singularly various. This great genus, SALMo, Lin. Is subdivided as follows. SAuro, Cuv. The Salmon, properly so called, or rather the Trout, has a great portion of the edge of the upper jaw formed by the maxillaries; a range of pointed teeth in the maxillaries, intermaxillaries, palatines and mandibularies, and a double one on the vomer, tongue, and pha· ryngeals; so that of all fishes it is the most completely furnished with teeth. In the old male the end of the lower jaw is bent up towards the palate, where a cavity receives it when the mouth is closed. The ventra]s are opposite to the middle of the first dorsa], and the adipose to the anal. There are ten branchial rays or thereabout. There is one flexu1·e in the long and narrow stomach, which is fol· lowed by very numerous cceca; the natatory bladder extends from one end of the abdomen to the other, and communicates above with the resophagus. The body is usually spotted, and the flesh good. These fishes ascend rivers to spawn, leaping over cataracts, &c., and are even found in the bt·ooks and small lakes of the highest mountains. (1) Lol'icaria cataphracta, L., or L. cirrhosa, Bl. Schn., and setigera, Lacep·~ Bl., 375, 1, 2;-Loricari~ rostrata, Spix, UI;-Rinelepis aspera, Id., II;-.Bcanthl· cu1 hystrix, Id., 1. MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 223 S. aalar, L.; Bl., 20. (The Salmon.) The largest species of the genus, with red flesh and irregular brown spots, which soon disappear in fresh water; the cartilaginous hook formed by the lower jaw is inconsiderable even in the old male. From all the .Arctic seas, whence it enters the rivers in the spring. The value of this fishery in all northern countries is well known. 8./tamatus, Cuv.; BJ., 98. A whitish ground, spotted with red and black; snout of the male narrowed into a point, and the hook of the lower jaw much more strongly marked than in the sala1·. Its teeth are stronger and its flesh red, but leaner and not so much esteemed. Taken at the mouths of rivers in Europe. ' 8. 8chiefermulleri, BI., 103. Less than the salar, with longer and more slender teeth; flanks sprinkled with little crescentshaped spots on a silvery ground; flesh yellow. Numbers of this species are sent to Paris during the summer. 8. hucho, L.; the Hucho of the Danube and its tributaries. BI., 100, and better, Meidinger, 45. Nearly as large as the salar, differing but little from the preceding in its spots, but has a more pointed snout and much stronger teeth. With respect to the remaining river Trouts, it may be said that they are found in all the clear streams of Europe, and particularly among the mountains, of very different colours and sizes, among which several naturalists have thought they could detect various species, while others affirm that these are mere varieties, resulting from age, nourishment, and especially from the waters in which they sojourn; this supposition, however, is, I think, stretched beyond the bounds of probability. 8. lemanus, Cuv. From the lake of Geneva, and also found in some neighbouring ones; head and back sprinkled with small ~ou.n~ and blackish spots on a whitish ground; the flesh white; md1VIduals are sometimes taken, weighing from forty to fifty pounds. 8. trutta, L.; BI. 21. (The Salmon Trout.) Ocellated spots, or spots shaped like an X, the upper ones sometimes surrounded with a circle of a lighter hue; many of these spots on the opercu. la and. adipose fin; flesh reddish. The finest specimens of this species are taken from rivulets of clear water, which directly empty into the sea, but it is found at an heights. 8.fario, L.; Bl., 22. (The Common Trout.) Smaller; brown spots on the back, red ones on the flanks, surrounded by a lighter coloured circle, but varying infinitely as to the tint of the ground, which is from a white and a golden yellow to a deep brown; \ |