122 Tzvcnty-sixth Annual Meeting 



necessarily very large through their environment, she produces 

 the ova in enormous numbers; for instance, the sturgeon will 

 deposit a million or more and only a few are fertilized, and but 

 fewer still reach the adult form; and so with the codfish, and 

 other forms of sea fish; and the whitefish. The whitefish yields a 

 large percentage of eggs in proportion to the size of the fish. 

 Mr. Davis speaks about the black bass; the eggs are few in 

 comparison with many other fish, but the environment is such 

 that the fertilization is large, and as the black bass protect their 

 eggs, the percentage of }oung is large. And this law holds good 

 through all forms of animal life, insect life, even plant life; we 

 know that millions of spores of i)ollen are thrown off; that one 

 seed may be fertilized. 



Mr. Post: One seed is the egg. 



Dr. Parker: Yes, but it takes millions of good sperms 

 that one egg may be fertilized. \Mien nature furnishes a com- 

 paratively siuall number of eggs, a large number are fertilized, 

 and vice versa; so that the balance is pretty well kept all the 

 wav through. What Mr. Davis says al)out the spawning of 

 bass in still water is correct, and the fact that they did in one 

 instance get ten thousand fish from a single bod in the pond, 

 and the further fact that some l)eds in the pond averaged a good 

 (leal higher — that is. produced a larger number of fish than the 

 beds in the river — show we get a greater percentage of fertiliza- 

 tion in still water than in running water. 



Mr. Davis: My remarks were made in answer to the remark? 

 by Mr. Clark about eggs not fertilizing in water. 



Mr. Clark: No, no, you misquote me. I trust the members 

 will not misunderstand me. I do not claim at all that eggs can- 

 not be impregnated in water. It is not that; but the more water 

 you have, the greater the reduction of the milt power. Don't you 

 see? It is scattered. When you take them in the dry process 

 your eggs are in nothing but the milt, and of course the milt is 

 right around them. If you have a barrel of water and one male 

 fish, the milt is diluted. That is what I wanted to say, not that 

 you cannot impregnate in water. 



Mr. Stranahan: I have observed the spawning beds of black 

 bass under very favorable circumstances, where the fish were at 

 home, and I have used marine glasses so their operations could 

 be watched, and at the instant those eggs are dropped there is a 

 flow of milt from the male and they are immediately together. 



