INTRODUCTOEY. 37 



carried on for centuries witli an enormous destruction 

 of spawn before it has been shed, and that, notwith- 

 standing all this waste of reproductive power, the Yar- 

 mouth fishery, for example, and the oldest on record, 

 has within the last very few years been more productive 

 than it had ever been known before, the fear of injuring 

 future fisheries by our eating fuU-roed herrings seems 

 unlikely, and by any chance disturbance of spawning 

 beds utterly unreasonable. The great enemies to spawn 

 of all kinds are not tlje fishermen, but fish of various 

 sorts, both round and flat; and floating spawn is 

 doubtless largely devoured by sea birds and surface- 

 swimming fishes. 



The greatest destruction of young fish-life, however, 

 probably takes place when the young animal assumes 

 an independent existence and begins to swim about in 

 the world of waters around it. As soon as it becomes 

 capable of any active movement the great struggle for 

 life commences ; it has to eat, and to take care that it is 

 not eaten ; but in the war that is being incessantly car- 

 ried on among the finny tribes — large fishes feeding on 

 small ones, and small ones on smaller — the newly-hatched 

 fry are heavily weighted, and myriads must be devoured 

 before they have strength to turn upon tlieir neighbours. 

 Yet millions and millions of these little creatures must 

 escape an early death, it may be, not many of them to 

 attain anything like maturity, but still to live long 

 enough to take an active part in the destruction of 

 their smaller kindred and neighbours, and perhaps to 

 become worthy of a humble position at the fishmonger's 

 stall. 



There is reason to think the limit of growth in some 

 s]3ecies of fish is not reached until after many years, and 

 that only a few of them live long enough amidst the 



