146 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



bers upon the shores, or are left dry by the tides, where they soon die from 

 exposure to the atmosphere, or during the cold winter weather are in- 

 stantly destroyed by freezing. Ipswich Bay, the most extensive spawning 

 ground in the locality, is especially unfortunate in this particular, for the 

 heavy storms from the north and east sweep with unbroken force across 

 its surface, and each breaker as it rolls in upon the beach must carry with 

 it many millions of eggs. 



" But such impregnated eggs as escape destruction upon the shores are 

 subjected to the ravages of the myriads of hungry animals living about 

 the rocks and coves. One day in January we placed a jelly-fish or medusid, 

 having a diameter of but one and a half inches, into a tray of eggs in the 

 hatching-room, and in less than five minutes it had fastened seventy eggs 

 to its tentacles, loading some of them so heavily that they were severed 

 from the body by the weight or resistance of the eggs as they were dragged 

 through the water." 



In addition to his other observations, Mr. Earll computed the number 

 of eggs in Codfish of different sizes. The results of his observations are 

 shown in the following tables : 



Table showing the number of eggs in Codfish of different sizes : 



It is interesting to compare these with the observations made during the 

 last century, references to which may be found in all the standard works 

 on natural history. Leuwenhoek is said to have found in a Cod of mid- 

 dling size 384,000 eggs. Harmer found, in one weighing eighteen or 

 twenty pounds, between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 eggs. It was examined 



