330 On Breeding of Fish, and the 



yolk, which last is transparent, tending to a yellowish co- 

 lour, and seems to fill up the greatest space in the egg, 

 except the little white round it. 



(2) As soon as this little animalcule has assumed the na- 

 ture and form ot" a fish, it appears that the yolk in the egg 

 is separated by a most exlreme thin skin from the outward 

 hard membrane. 



(3) The fish itself, except the eyes, is very transparent, 

 and as liquid as a little mucilaginous water, yet in shape 

 lougish ; it lies bent within the outward membrane of the 

 egg, and round the thin skin that covers the yolk (2). 



(4) From this time the fish is to be considered as one 

 body grown to the volk, from the gills downward to the 

 Outlet, which is in length about a quarter part of the in- 

 ward circumference of the egg. This yolk, which looks 

 like a bac, becomes the belly of the fish ; but is extended 

 at first above fifty times the size of its natural belly, and 



^without entrails. 



(5) On this expanded belly, expecially from the salmon- 

 trout, are plainly to be seen many blood-vessels, divided 

 into smaller branches, and so plain that the arteries may 

 be distinguished from the veins with the naked eye; and it 

 is no wonder, for as il has been mentioned (4), that ihi* 

 hanginsr belly is fifty times bigger than it should be in pro- 

 portion to the size of the fish, so the blood-vessels are in 

 proportion expanded, and are ;o be very plainly seen, as 

 long as the fish remains in a state of transparency like 

 water. 



(6) If you open one of these bags with a needle, a liquTd 

 runs out of a yellowish colour, which is the nutriment of 

 the fish. Then the bao; shrmks in like an empty bladder, 

 and the fish dies. After the fish has been out of its egg 

 about a fortnight, a thin skm separates from the inward 

 coat of this hanging belly, and then it shrinks so much 

 that it disappears entirely. After the belly is entirely shrunk 

 to its proportionable size, this inward skin shrinks likewise j 

 and because the intestines begin from the mouth, it forms 

 a passasre into the stomach, and continues narrower con- 

 tracted and formed into guts, which lay one over another, 

 terminatine at the outlet in the belly. It is further to be 

 observed, that ihe heads of the trouts, when they first have 

 the shape of fishes, have not the usual form ; they look as 

 if the snout was chopped oft" near the eyes ; but as their 

 bellies shrink, the heads grow, the mouths are formed, 

 and in about three weeks the heads get their proper shape. 



Lastly, 



