Prince. — The Red Flesh of the Salmons 59 



or globules would accumulate, and remain in the ovum. 

 If these globules were tinted by some excretionary or 

 other pigments, they would appear as striking, though 

 unessential and redundant, features in the egg. Now, 

 the colored globules in the eggs of the salmon bear pre- 

 cisely this character. In many other fish eggs, one or 

 many large colored globules or spheres occur, and they 

 are not used up as the embryo fish develops, but persist 

 for a long time after the young larva is hatched, and may 

 even be seen in the transparent or semi-transparent body 

 of the fish in the post-larval stages. It seems to me that 

 the color of the salmon's flesh originates in these red 

 globules, which continue from generation to generation 

 as redundant and unessential elements in the ovum and 

 embryo, and remain to permeate the muscles in the ale- 

 vin, smolt, grilse, and adult stages in the life of the fish. 

 Were this orange-colored fluid absolutely necessary to the 

 health and life of the salmon and trout, the pale or white- 

 fleshed fish would not exist; they would die out. But 

 such is not the case. In some lakes and streams these 

 less desirable trout, less desirable because white-fleshed, 

 have superseded the red-fleshed type. 



It must be noted that the clear, somewhat translucent, 

 fluid in the ripe ovary, and bathing the eggs, gives as 

 experiment has shown, marked proteid reactions; it is 

 rich in lecithin; no less than 15 to 20 per cent, and yields 

 also nucleo-proteins. 



Colored Globules Do Not Cause Buoyancy in Eggs. 



In studying the development of marine fishes, espe- 

 cially those with pelagic eggs, I have found that the 

 globules in the vitelline globe whether colored, as in 

 some species, or uncolored as in other species, had noth- 

 ing to do with their buoyancy or floating power, though 

 many authorities have so claimed, for the eggs of the 

 cod and haddock float in the sea, while destitute of those 

 remarkable globules, as freely as the eggs of the cunner 

 or sea perch (Tautogolabrus) or the mackerel (Scom- 

 ber) in which a colored globule or several globules, form 



