SMELLIE, WILLIAlf, 1740-95; b. Edinburgh, Scotland; became a printer, educated himself, and in 1759 was editor of the Scots Magazine. In 1771, then being a publisher, he issued the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, many of the articles being written by himself. From 1773 to 1776 he was joint editor with Gilbert Stuart of the Edinburgh Magazine and Review. He was the author also of The Philosophy of Natural History (1790-99), which was reprinted in this country.
SMELT, a genus of the salmon or trout family (salmonielee), of which only a few species are known, differing from the salmon, trout, etc., in having long conical teeth on the jaws and tongue, and on the tip of the vomer, the rest of the vomer being destitute of teeth; two distinct rows of teeth on each palatine bone.—The Costmog SmEur (0. eperlanus), called spirting or sporting in Scotland, and eperlan in France, is a fish of 8 or 10 in. (rarely 12 in.) in length. The form is very trout-like—rather more slender—the tail larger in proportion and more forked. The lower jaw is much longer than the upper. The scales are small; the back is whitish, tinged with green; the upper part of the sides shows bluish tints, the lower part of the sides and the belly are of a bright silvery color. The smelt has a peculiar cucumber-like smell and a delicious flavor, on account of which it is highly esteemed for the table, where it often appears as an accompaniment of other fish. The smelt is partly an inhabitant of fresh water,
and partly of the sea. It ascends rivers to no great distance from the sea in autumn, and descends in spring. Great numbers of smelts are taken in estuaries and near the months of rivers by small-meshed nets. They are also taken on the open sea-coast, chiefly on low sandy shores as that of Lincolnshire. The attempt has been successfully made to keep the smelt continually in fresh-water ponds, in which it not only. throve well without loss of flavor, but propagated abundantly. No effort has yet been made to turn this discovery—not a very recent one—to any economical account. Although found both on the eastern and western coasts of Britain, the smelt is unknown on the s. coast of England, where the name smelt or SAND SMELT is given to the atherine (q.v.). —Another British species, the Hebridean smelt (0. Hehridicus), was first discovered near Rothesay in 1837 and described by Yarrell. It is so rare as to be unimportant.—The AatunicAN SMELT (0. viridescens) is regarded as distinct from the common smelt.- It has a longer body and a greener back. It is found on the north-eastern coasts of America as far s. as the Hudson.