38 SALT-WATER FISHES 



of which appear to roam around our coasts irrespective of 

 their origin, while the majority confine themselves, as the case 

 may be, to the southern or northern portion of our seas. As 

 a general rule, it will be found that the Arctic forms, being 

 the most vigorous, provide the most valuable and varied forms, 

 while those from the south are more attractive in their colours 

 and general appearance. The writer has had some oppor- 

 tunity of comparing the fishes of British seas with those of 

 three other very different areas of water — the Baltic, the 

 Mediterranean, and the South Pacific in the neighbourhood 

 of Sydney, New South Wales. The Baltic was immeasurably 

 inferior in the matter of variety, though the abundance of 

 such comparatively i^'^ table fish as found their way to the 

 inshore waters in North Mecklenburgh was amazing, owing 

 in great measure to ineffectual methods of fishing. The 

 Mediterranean, on the other hand, shows immense variety, 

 but a serious falling-off in large fish. The practice of catching 

 swarms of young — not what we should call undersized merely, 

 but those which have just struggled out of the post-larval 

 stage and measure perhaps an inch or two in length — in the 

 bilancta net for a '■'■ frittura " is, while often helpful to the 

 student, fatal to the fish supply. In Australia there is a great 

 wealth of excellent fish ; but at the time when the writer was 

 in the colony named, Mr. Farnell was only just inaugurating 

 his trawling experiments, so that it is too early to talk seriously 

 of the Australian trawling industry. 



In contrasting the bass and the tope as the types of the 



bony and cartilaginous sub-classes respectively, allusion was 



Reproduc- made to the fact of the latter bringing forth living 



andbevd^p' young, whereas the bass deposits floating eggs, 



ment.' which are fertilised in the water, and subsequently 



hatch out. There are other forms of reproduction among 



* The remainder of this chapter is based on the admirable account 

 contained in the first six chapters of the Life Histories by Mcintosh and 

 Masterman. 



