118 FISH HARVESTING. 



each portion of orange. This is exactly the way 

 the fish are packed in this novel placental sac. 

 If it were practicable to remove each fish from 

 its space, and the sac retain its normal shape, 

 there would be twelve or fourteen openings 

 (depending upon the number of young fish), 

 the wall of each division being a double fold 

 of membrane the double edges wrapping or, 

 as it were, folding over the fish. Now make a 

 hole in the end of this folded bag, and blow it 

 full of air, and you get at once the globe-shaped 

 membranous sac I have likened to an orange. 



The fish are always arranged to economise 

 space : when the head of a young fish points to 

 the head of its mother, the next to it is reversed, 

 and looks towards the tail. I am quite convinced 

 that the young fish are packed away by doubling 

 or folding the sac in the way I have endeavoured 

 to describe. I have again and again dissected 

 out this ovarian bag, filled with fish in various 

 stages of development, and floating it in salt- 

 water, have, with a fine-pointed needle, opened 

 the edges of the double membranous divisions 

 that enwrap the fish (the amount of overlap- 

 ping is of course greater when the fish is in its 

 earlier stages of development). On separating 

 the edges of the sac, out the little fishes pop. I 

 have obtained them in all stages of their growth, 



