222 THE PROVISION-BAG DESCRIBED. 



with wonderful alacrity. But if we stand mo- 

 tionless for a short time, they emerge in myriads 

 from their hiding-places, and then we can examine 

 them minutely and with freedom in all their forms 

 and appendages most correctly; we see a mul- 

 titude of fishes, although yet in an embryo state, 

 and very unlike salmon ; yet we are certain that 

 they are the young of that fish, albeit their ap- 

 pearance is little better than that of a tadpole. 

 The young fish are, on an average (we must 

 mention here that they are not all of the same 

 size; for, from the moment of hatching, we 

 have large and small, which distinctions con- 

 tinue throughout all their after ages), about three- 

 fourths of an inch long, with the provision-bag, 

 fully one-fourth of an inch, attached to the belly, 

 and their heads large in comparison with the body. 

 The bag, when carefully examined, is found to be 

 intersected with small red branches or veins, which 

 all collect into one, and centre at the head of the 

 fish ; and from this provision-bag, through its 

 conduits or veins, the young fish derive all their 

 nourishment for the first five weeks of their ex- 

 istence." 



At this period, or, say at a month old, I have 

 not thought it necessary to give an engraving of 

 the fish. I'll describe its appeaaance at a month 



