THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 81 



of tbis kind, where the young are hatched out within the body of the 

 mother, the number is extremely small, compared to what is seen in 

 the case of free eggs, and illustrates very well tbe enormous waste of life. 

 The different species of Embiotocoids are enormously abundant on the 

 California coast, fully equal, if not surpassing, in numbers many kinds 

 the females of which lay hundreds of thousands of eggs at a time. As, 

 however, all the ova developed produce' young, which are protected in 

 the belly of the mother to a period far beyond even that at which the 

 young feeds itself, the larger part of the dangers of infancy are guarded 

 against, and a yield of five to twenty young, from each parent, keeps 

 up the supply more efficiently and extensively than sometimes where 

 ten thousand times that number of eggs is discharged. 



The eggs themselves, as laid by the parent, are for the most part globu- 

 lar, and vary greatly in size, those of the eel being microscopically minute; 

 of the cod, much larger, though still very diminutive ; those of the salmon, 

 on the other hand, being of the magnitude of a pea ; eggs of the ocean 

 catfish are of still greater bulk, being sometimes half an inch in diameter* 

 The males of some, if not all, of the marine Siluridce, or catfish, have 

 the curious habit of carrying the eggs either in the mouth or the cavity 

 of the gills until they are hatched, half a dozen to a dozen eggs coustr 

 tuting a laying. One of the largest known eggs, with the exception 

 of those of the Plagiostomi (sharks, skates, &c), is that of the myxine, 

 or hag, a fish well known in the North Atlantic as a parasite, attacking 

 fishes caught on the hook. Here the shape of the egg is ellipsoidal, 

 much like that of an olive, and the greater diameter sometimes almost 

 three-quarters of an inch in length. 



A great variety in shape and size of eggs is found among sharks and 

 skates, these sometimes having a horny shell, and looking as much like 

 dried sea-weed as anything else. The egg of the cestracion shark, of 

 the Pacific Ocean, resembles a bit of sea-weed, twisted up into a spiral 

 shape. That of certain skates is familiar to most visitors to the sea- 

 shore from its resemblance to a brown pillowcase, with the four corners 

 extended into tendrils. These cases are from 2 to 10 inches in length, 

 according to the species. By means of the tendrils they can be at- 

 tached to sea-weeds and other objects at the bottom of the ocean, and 

 held there until the young are hatched out and escape through the open 

 end of the bag. Many varieties of form of egg-cases exist among the 

 skates, and furnish excellent specific characters. 



In further reference to the number of eggs laid by fish I present here- 

 with a table giving some computations, both original and selected, 

 which will serve to illustrate better the variety in this respect : 

 S, Mis. 90 6 



