CSS: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition (81 page)

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The animals on the cover of
CSS: The Definitive Guide
, Third
Edition, are salmon (
salmonidae
), which is a family of fish consisting
of many different species. Two of the most common salmon are the Pacific salmon and the
Atlantic salmon.

Pacific salmon live in the northern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of North America and
Asia. There are five subspecies of Pacific salmon, with an average weight of 10 to 30
pounds. Pacific salmon are born in the fall in freshwater stream gravel beds, where they
incubate through the winter and emerge as inch-long fish. They live for a year or two in
streams or lakes and then head downstream to the ocean. There they live for a few years,
before heading back upstream to their exact place of birth to spawn and then die.

Atlantic salmon live in the northern Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of North America and
Europe. There are many subspecies of Atlantic salmon, including the trout and the char.
Their average weight is 10 to 20 pounds. The Atlantic salmon family has a life cycle
similar to that of its Pacific cousins, and also travels from freshwater gravel beds to the
sea. A major difference between the two, however, is that the Atlantic salmon does not die
after spawning; it can return to the ocean and then return to the stream to spawn again,
usually two or three times.

Salmon, in general, are graceful, silver-colored fish with spots on their backs and
fins. Their diet consists of plankton, insect larvae, shrimp, and smaller fish. Their
unusually keen sense of smell is thought to help them navigate from the ocean back to the
exact spot of their birth, upstream past many obstacles. Some species of salmon remain
landlocked, living their entire lives in freshwater.

Salmon are an important part of the ecosystem, as their decaying bodies provide
fertilizer for streambeds. Their numbers have been dwindling over the years, however.
Factors in the declining salmon population include habitat destruction, fishing, dams that
block spawning paths, acid rain, droughts, floods, and pollution.

The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover
font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe
Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed.