32 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



water and kept them floating. If this should be con- 

 firmed, it will prove that even in the case of agglu- 

 tinated masses of ova, development may naturally take 

 place in them far away from the bottom. 



The observations on spawning to wliich we have now 

 called attention, startling as they may appear to us, are 

 the result of a systematic inquiry into the subject by 

 competent persons, and extending over several years. 

 We have therefore no ground for not accepting the 

 conclusions arrived at by Professor Gr. 0. Sars^ supported 

 as they are in the very important instance of the plaice 

 by the independent observations of M. Malm. 



But what becomes then of the long-standing and 

 widely-spread charge against the general body of 

 trawlers of "annually destroying thousands of tons of 

 spawn" of various kinds ? It is strongly confirmatory 

 of the accuracy of M. Sars' observations that no other 

 deposited fish spawn than that of the herring has yet 

 become really known to the fishermen ; and we will 

 undertake to say that the number of fishermen wdio 

 have seen herring spawn after it has been taken uji 

 from the ground on which it was naturally deposited 

 is exceedingly small, unless they have found it in the 

 stomachs of haddock and several other fishes wdiich are 

 known to feed upon it. 



Yarious marine sul)stances well known to naturalists 

 as being distinct forms of animal life, and whose struc- 

 ture is detailed in our text-books of zoology — sponges, 

 zoophytes, ascidians, &c., for example — are grouped 

 together by many of our fishermen under the single 

 appellation of " spawn." Nothing has done more duty 

 in this way than the common irregularly-shaped mass of 

 invertebrate life called "thumbs," "teats," or "dead men's 

 fingers" by tlie ti'awlors (who know it is not fish spawn), 



