OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 23 



IV. 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NEWPORT MARINE LABORATORY, 

 COMMUNICATED BY ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 



XIV. ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOME PELAGIC 

 FISH EGGS. — PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 



By Alexander Agassiz and C. O. Whitman. 



Read May 14th, 1884. 



Considerable attention has in late years been paid to fish eggs 

 found floating on the surface, more especially since the establishment 

 of various Fish Commissions to study the history of the sea-fishes. 

 As early as 1868, Malm^ raised the eggs of a species of Flounder by 

 artificial fecundation, and found them to float on the surface at first, 

 and in the later stages of development to sink gradually below the 

 surfiice. Sars,2 jj^ 18G9, found that the eggs of the Cod floated on 

 the surface. Haeckel,^ during a visit to Corsica, in 1874, also found 

 pelagic fish eggs which he referred to some Gadoid : he subsequently 

 found the same eggs at Nice, in 1876. E. van Beneden,^ in 1874, 

 studied pelagic fish eggs at Villa Franca. Kupffer,^ in 1868, pub- 

 lished some interesting investigations on pelagic fish eggs found in 

 the harbor of Kiel. 



Mr. Ryder "^ and Colonel McDonald of the United States Fish 

 Commission observed that the eggs of the Spanish Mackerel were 

 found floating on the surface. 



In 1879 and in 1882 A. Agassiz'^ published some preliminary 

 results on the pelagic fish eggs he had raised during the past twenty 



1 Malm, A. W. Svenska Vetensk. Akad. Hancll., VII., 1807 and 1868. 

 - Sars, G. O. Indberetninger til Departementel for det Indre. Christiania, 

 18G9. 



3 IIaeckt4, E. Die Gastrula und die Eifurchung. Jena Zcitschr., IX., 1875. 



4 Van Beneden, E. Quart. Journ. Mic. Sc;i., 1878, p. 41. 



5 Kupffer, C. Arcliiv fur Mikr. Anat., 1808, p. 200. 



6 Ryder, J. A. Bull. U. S. Fish Com., I., p. \m, 1881. 



^ Agassiz, A. Proc. Am. Acad , vol. xiv., 1878, p. 1, and vol. xvii., 1882, p. 27. 



