MARINE FOOD FISHES. 27 



birth annually to a number of eggs varying from half a million to a million. The female 

 lobster yields from twelve thousand to twenty-five thousand ova each season. Crabs, 

 periwinkles, mussels, have an amazing fecundity. Such being the case, it appears at first 

 sight an absurdity to attempt to add, by artificial arrangements, to the population of the 

 sea, when the natural rate of increase is so prodigious. 



There is, however, another side to be heard from. The more extended the studies of 

 naturalists regarding fish-life, the more apparent does it become that the waste and 

 destruction constantly going on in the sea, of life in all its stages, from the spawn to the 

 full-grown fish, is enormou.s. If nature produces with reckless prodigality, her destruc- 

 tive processes are on a corresponding scale. If there is no economy observed in the 

 arrangements for the maintenance of life in the sea, neither are there bounds set to the 

 destroying agencies. A silent war is ever raging in the ocean, and the slaughter is 

 beyond all calculation. One race preys on another ; and life can only be sustained by the 

 destruction of some other form of life. In the great world of waters, with its shallows 

 and its depths, its vast plains, its hills and mountain ranges, how marvellous the diver- 

 sities of life ! But there death and terror are ever raging, under the most placid surface. 

 The inhabitants live 



" A cold, sweet silver life, wrapped in round waves, 

 Quickened with touches of transporting fear." 



The work of destruction ever goes on, not only through animated forms, but by the 

 physical forces of nature. Birth and death follow each other in mysterious rhythm, even 

 in the profoundest ocean depths : — 



" Creator and destroyer, mighty Sea ! 

 That in thy still and solitary deep 

 Dost at all being's base thy vigil keep, 

 And nurturest serene and potently 

 The slumbering roots of vast Creation's tree. 

 The teeming swarms of life that swim and creep, 

 But half aroused from the primordial sleep, 

 All draw their evanescent breath from thee. 

 The rock thou buildeet and the fleeting cloud ; 

 Thy billows in eternal circuit rise 

 Through nature's veins, with gentle might endowed, 

 Throbbing in beast and flower in sweet disguise ; 

 In sounding currents roaming o'er the earth, 

 They speed the ultimate pulse of death and birth." 



Let us take the eggs of the codfish as an illustration. These are thrown from the 

 mother-fish into the sea by thousands of millions. They float on ornearthesirrface in the 

 form of minute transparent globes, exceedingly delicate and buoyant. They dance about in 

 the iipper waters, and are driven far and wide by winds and currents. Their tendency is 

 ever towards the surface, so as to reach the vivifying influence of heat and light. What 

 becomes of these enormous multitudes of delicate egg-globes, hardly perceptible to the 

 naked eye ? Vast numbers of them fail to come into contact with the milt of the male 

 which is also thrown into the same waters, the act of impregnation being external. The 

 eggs quickly perish unless they are touched by the vivifying male element. They require 

 from three to five weeks to hatch after being fecundated. All this time they are floating 



