LESSON VIII.-SOFT-RAYED BONY FISHES, WITH ABDOMINAL VENTRAL FINS- -Continued.

[Salmon and Trout, and Herring and Pilchard Families.]

SALMON AND TROUT FAMILY.-1. White-fish of the Lakes, Coregonus albus. 2. Common Sea Salmon, Salmo salar. 3. New York Brook Trout, Salmo fontinalis. 4. Troutlet. 5. Great Lake Trout of Europe, Salmo ferox.

1. OUR remaining notices of this order of the bony fishes embrace the Salmon and Trout, and the Herring and Pilchard families. Of all the fresh-water fishes of northern latitudes, those comprising the salmon and trout family are the most. important in an economical point of view. To the naturalist, also, they are full of interest, as the history of many of them is chiefly curious; while with the angler many of the species are preferred to every other kind of fish as objects on which

to exercise his skill.

2. The common sea salmon, which is the largest species of the family, is both a salt-water and a fresh-water fish. They invariably breed in fresh water, while they find their most nutritious food, and other conditions most favorable to their growth and general health, in salt water. They begin to enter rivers in spring, and continue ascending during the summer, but chiefly when the rivers are swollen by rains, when

they generally advance with some rapidity, often, it is supposed, at the rate of twenty-five miles a day.

3. So strong is the impulse that urges these fish on, that they overcome obstacles which, to an animal so formed, we should be inclined to pronounce insurmountable. They frequently make perpendicular leaps to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, thus surmounting waterfalls and other obstacles which the rocky bed of a river often presents to their progress. By the time they reach the upper and shallow portions of the river, these fish have assumed their most brilliant hues. Selecting some gravelly bottom, they then deposit their spawn, and cover it with a thin layer of sand.

'4. With this the parental duties of the fish cease; they lose their bright colors, become lean and emaciated, and, after reposing a while in the depths of some neighboring pool, they commence their progress down the river for the purpose of regaining the ocean, where they are speedily invigorated, and restored to their former condition. In England the spawning season is from October to the end of February; but the salmon which ascend the St. Lawrence appear in Lake Ontario in April, and leave it in October or November.

5. The eggs or spawn of the salmon continue under the sand where deposited, before hatching, in general from a hundred to a hundred and forty days. The first migration1 of the young fish to the sea usually takes place late in the spring of their second year. They are then called salmon-smelts,* or samlets. On reaching the mouth of the river, they remain for a time where the water is brackish2 by the mixture of salt-water, and, thus prepared for the change, they launch out into the sea, where they rapidly increase in size and vigor.

6. The common brook trout is so variable, both in color and markings, that scarcely two individuals from separate localities will answer to the same description. It is said that in England and no doubt the same is true in this countryin lakes and rivers fed by dark waters from boggy moors, .the tints become very deep, the back appearing almost black, and the sides and belly of an intense yellow, with the spots very large. The colors are believed to accommodate themselves to the tint of the water, and to the prevailing tone of the bottom, whether of rock or gravel, or softer substance; but, whatever may be the cause of this singular adaptation,

* The true smelts are a small fish of the Salmon family, five or six inches in length, but they are not the young of the salmon. They are taken in large quantities along our Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Labrador, and are often sold by measure.

there can be no doubt that it contributes to the concealment and safety of the fish, just as we often observe, in land animals, an assimilation of color to the places they frequent.

HERRING AND PILOUARD FAMILY.-1. The Mossbonker, or Hard-head, Alosa menhaden (very abundant on the shores of Long Island and Mass. It is seldom eaten). 2. The Pilchard, Clupea pilchardus. 3. The Anchovy, Engraulis engrasicolus. 4. American Shad, Alosa præstabilis. 5. The Herring, Clupea harengus.

7. The Herring and Pilchard family embraces several varieties of the herring, the pilchard, the common shad, and the anchovy of the Mediterranean. The common herring of the Atlantic, so well known as an article of food, is taken in vast quantities in drift nets, in the meshes of which it becomes entangled in attempting to pass through them. Formerly the herring were supposed to descend in a mighty army, early in the season, from the Arctic Seas, and then to divide and spread over the English coasts; but it is now believed that they winter in the deep water of the northern temperate regions, and only seek the shores and shallow portions of the ocean for the purpose of depositing their spawn.

8. The common American shad, which differs only in trifling particulars from what is known as the allice shad of Europe, is a beautiful and valuable fish, from one to two feet in length. It enters our rivers from the sea early in the season to deposit its spawn, and, unlike most of the family to which it belongs, comes from the southern instead of the northern seas. In the rivers of Georgia and the Carolinas it usually makes its appearance in January or February; in March it arrives at Norfolk; at New York, early in April; and on the coasts of New England still later. These fish ascend the Hud

son one hundred and fifty miles to deposit their spawn, and descend in the latter part of May, when they are called back shad, and are then lean, and scarcely fit to be eaten. They were formerly taken in immense quantities, but their numbers are gradually diminishing.

9. The anchovy, which is a small fish from four to five inches in length, chiefly distinguished from the herrings by having the head pointed, the upper jaw the longest, and the mouth deeply divided, is abundant in the Mediterranean, and was well known to the Greeks and Romans, by whom the liquor prepared from it was held in high estimation. It is pickled in large quantities for exportation, and the well-known anchovy sauce, used for seasoning, is prepared from it.

1 MI-GRA'-TION, removal.

2 BRAOK'-ISH, saltish.

LES. IX.-SOFT-RAYED BONY FISHES, WITH THE VENTRAL FINS BENEATH THE PECTORALS: called Sub-brachials.

[The families of the Cod, Flat-fish, and Salt-water Suckers.]

2.

THE COD FAMILY.-1. Three-bearded Rockling, or Sea-loche, Motella tricirrata. The Torsk, Brosmius vulgaris. 3. The Haddock, Morrhua æglefinus. 4. Coal-fish, Merlangus carbonarius. 5. The Ling, Lota molva. 6. Five-bearded Rockling, Motella quinquecirrata. 7. The Whiting, Merlangus vulgaris. 8. Great Forked Hake, Phycis furcatus. 9. Common Cod, Morrhua vulgaris.

THE second division of the soft-rayed bony fishes consists

of the Cod family, the family of the Flat-fish, and the two families of the salt-water Suckers.

1. At the head of the Cod family is the common cod, which is the largest, best known, and most valuable member of it. It is found universally in European Seas, from the coast of Spain to Iceland; and on the eastern American coast, and among its numerous islands, northward from the latitude of New York, it is even still more abundant. The Grand Banks of Newfoundland, reaching six hundred miles in length, seem to be literally covered with cod-fish, which are taken in vast quantities during the fishing season, which opens at the beginning of June, and lasts till about the middle of October. The cod are taken in deep water by hooks, usually baited with pork, sea-fowl, or shell-fish; and from two hundred to five hundred are often caught by one man in a single day. Notwithstanding the vast quantities taken-estimated at forty millions of fish annually-their numbers do not seem to diminish.

2. The haddock and the whiting, both fish of the Cod family, are almost as generally known as the common cod, and in Europe are considered nearly equal to the cod in value, but are not so highly esteemed in this country. The coal-fish, the ling, the rocklings, the torsk, and the great forked hake, are additional members of the same family, which we have represented in the engraving.

A CHARADE' ON-Cod.

Cut off my head, and singular I act;

Cut off my tail, and plural I appear;

Cut off my tail and head-oh! wondrous fact,
Although my middle's left, there's nothing here.

What is my head cut off? a sounding sea.
What is my tail cut off? a flowing river.
Far in the ocean depths I fearless play;

Giver of sweetest sounds, yet mute forever.

2. FAMILY OF THE FLAT-FISH.

(Pleuronectida.)

"Flat-fish, with eyes distorted, square, ovoid, rhomboid, long,

Some cased in mail, some slippery-back'd, the feeble and the strong."

In one of Mr. Yarrell's volumes we find the following description of the flat-fish, the prominent species of which we have exhibited in the annexed engraving:

1. "The character and appearance of the various species of flat-fish are so peculiar as to claim particular notice. The want of symmetry in the form of the head; both eyes placed on the same side, one higher than the other, frequently not in the same vertical line, and often unequal in size; the position of the mouth; the inequality of the two sides of the head, and