314 
I think I can produce conclusive evidence that a widely- 
received opinion of the eggs of each species being of identical 
size, no matter what the age or size of the parent may be, is 
founded on error and not the result of observation. 
In the year 1767, Harmer wrote in the “Transactions of 
the Royal Society,” an exceedingly interesting paper on the 
“Fecundity of Fishes.” He remarked, “from this table it 
appears that the size of the eggs is nearly the same in great 
and small fishes of the same species at the same time of the 
year.” Passing over the remarks of numerous naturalists in 
this country, some being their own observations, and others 
merely copies of those of their predecessors, we may well com- 
mence extracts about 1864, when the ‘‘ Zoological Record ”’ was 
began. Professor Matmeren having ventured to assert that 
certain Salmonoids in a Finland lake were descendants of the 
common salmon, whose access to the sea had been cut off owing 
to the elevation of the land, mentioned as one of the differences 
that this dwarfed breed had smaller ova than seen in the Salmo 
salar. Criticising this opinion of Professor Matmeren, Dr 
GUNTHER observed that “ the last character,” or size of the ova, 
“will be considered very significant by all who may have 
a more extended knowledge of fishes, as the size of the ova is 
not only invariably the same in individuals of whatever size, 
but, as far as our experience reaches, is even often character- 
istic of the species of a genus.” 
BuancuarD (Poissons des Eaux Donces de la France, 1866, 
page 461) observed that “the eggs of the grilse are always 
sensibly smaller than those of the adult salmon.” 
Livineston Srone, “ Domesticated Trout,” third edition, 
1877, remarked that in American trout, Salmo fontinalis, which 
reside in spring water, which is equivalent to a diminished 
supply of food, smaller eggs are developed than in such as 
reside in brooks. In the report of the United States Fish 
Commission on the McCloud river, California, “it was noted in 
1878 that the parent salmon were unusually small, their 
average weight being under 8lb.” This small size was stated 
“to be undoubtedly caused in whole or in part by the fishery 
at the canneries of the Sacramento, where the 8-inch meshes 
