116 FISH HARVESTING. 



widened end of the ovary. But still I maintain 

 that it fulfils a far more important duty. 



I fear I have been rather prolix in the 

 foregoing descriptions, but I must plead the 

 novelty and importance of the subject as my 

 excuse. The most beautiful of all the species 

 of these fish is the sapphire perch (so called 

 by the traders), very plentiful in Puget's Sound. 

 Eighteen exquisitely beautiful mazarine-blue 

 lines or stripes mark its entire length from 

 head to tail; and above and below this line are a 

 number of spots of most dazzling blue, arranged 

 in a crescent shape, about the eyes and gill-covers. 

 Between these spots the colour changes, as it does 

 in the dolphin, throwing off a kind of phosphor- 

 escent light of varying shades of gold, purple, and 

 green the back bright-blue, but darker than 

 the stripes ; the belly white, marked by golden- 

 yellow streaks. 



But now for the most important feature in the 

 history of these fish that of bringing into the 

 world their young alive, self-dependent, and self- 

 supporting, as perfect in their minutest organ- 

 isation as the parent-fish that gives them birth. 

 The generative apparatus of the female fish when 

 in a gravid state may be defined as a large bag 

 or sac. Ramifying over its surface may be seen 



