ALASKA—FOR YOUR INFORMATION
This week we complete our "onoo over lightly” of the famity Salmonidae with’ a
quick glance at the genus Salvelinus, the chars#
If you remember# salmon differed from trout and char in the sise and number of
rays in the anal fin# The chars differ from the trout in three ways#
1« Smaller scales - they are hardly visible# lending an almost velvet-like ap—
pearanoe to the skin* * • -■
2# Chars have reddish spots while the trouts have dark ones* They are more
prominent during‘spawning#
3# Chars’ teeth are on the anterior vomer only and the trouts’ teeth extend
back on the vomer in double sigsag series#
Some of the chars continue to live in salt Water liko all tho ancestors of the
living species no doubt did# However, others have became chiefly or wholly re
stricted to fresh water* Certain speoies that live in fresh water in* the south
ern part of their range throughout life will enter saltwater" if they inhabit st
reams adjacent to cold seas# The "eastern brook trout” (Salvelinus Pontinalis)
for example# ranges wouthward to Georgia# but enters the sea only from 0ape Cod
northwards Even then only a part of the population of any one river "run down”
to* the sea# They are then known as sea trout# but not to bo confused with south
ern sea trout which belong to tho oroaker family#
Chars generally do not run large in sise* often attaining a- length of only 10
12 in#, though some individuals of those species that run down to sea may attain
a length of about 24 inches or more#
The chars generally are valued as food and gemo fishes# However# there is a
disliked member, the "Dolly Vardon trout# " Salvelinus Malaa# Tho Dolly Varden
known in tho Arctic as tho Arctic Trout, is highly prodatory# destructive of sal
mon eggs and young salmon and is not regarded as a good gamo fish# as gome fish
go# unless you live on Adak and then they are a "likod member of S# Malma.”
^Dolly Vardon are found on the Pacific coast of the lf#S., Alaska# USSR and Ja
pan# -
I hope this series of articles has helped to dear up some of the oonfusion •
generated by tho similarity of the specie as woll as the interchangeable use of '
names of the throe members of the family Salmonidao# ' •
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"DrDay, The Sixth of June, 1944" by David Korwarth, is a richly detailed, persD ri
al aooount of individual men, American and British, who loft England that morning
and of the German defenders and French villagers who met them on chaotic beaches*
"The Wilderness11 by Carter A* Vaughan, a novel about a spy during the French and
Indian wars*
"The Rape Of The Fair Country" by Alexander Cordell, a major novel of a Welsh
village and it1s ironmasters*
"Cone Of Silence" by David Beaty, an absorbing now flying novel**in which the tr
uth is hidden in the cone of silence*
For soienoe fiction readers, wo have one now book "The Fourth Galaxy Reader" by
Horace Gold*
See you at the Fletcher library