INTRODUCTORY. 27 



fishermen, and a confident reply is usually ready for us. 

 Rongli ground or smooth ground — rocks, gravel, sand 

 or mud, is pointed out as the haunt of particular species 

 when ripe for spawning, and the conclusion is arrived 

 at, perhaps not unnaturally, that such locality is the 

 place selected for the future nursery. That spawn 

 remains at the bottom, either free or attached to stones, 

 seaweed, &c., or buried beneath the surface of the 

 ground, is the universal belief among fishermen ; and 

 the probability of such being usually the case was 

 strengthened by what was known not only of the 

 places in which the spawn of the salmon and many 

 entirely fresh-water fishes is deposited, but also by the 

 well-ascertained fact that herring spawn is laid on the 

 ground, to the rougher parts of which it firmly adheres. 

 The herring is, however, the only one of our edible 

 sea fish of whose spawning habits we have until recently 

 had any very precise information. 



The fact of fish ova being found floating at the 

 surface of the sea was stated by both Professor Huxley 

 and Professor Allmau in 1867 before the Select Com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons on the Sea Coast 

 Fisheries (Ireland) Bill, as within their knowledge 

 and experience; and that the ova were in all cases 

 alive, and some of them in an advanced state of develop- 

 ment. Professor Huxley also referred in his evidence 

 to observations then recently made by Norwegian 

 naturalists on the spawning of sea fish, leading to the 

 belief that the ova of the common cod naturally under- 

 go their development while floating at the surface. 



The subject is of great interest, especially in connec- 

 tion wnth the working of our sea fisheries, and we have 

 accordingly taken some pains to ascertain the result of 

 the investigations, so far as they have gone. 



