28 FOOD OF FISHES. 



fine earthen vessel, extremely black, by which means 

 they are better discovered. 



It appears from Harmer's observation, that the size 

 of the eggs is almost equal in great and small fishes of the 

 same species, at the same time of the year, and that the 

 quantity of spawn, is, in general, nearly proportionate 

 to the size of the animal, whence a tolerable guess may 

 be given of the greatest fecundity of each kind. If it is 

 known to what weight they have been found to grow 

 in a breeding state, their produce at a medium may 

 likewise be settled, upon learning what the mean size 

 of each sort is, when under such conditions. This is 

 not, however, universal, and, consequently, not perfectly 

 exact, some fish being much more prolific than others, 

 although of a similar bulk and species. 



He further observes, that the great fruitfulness of 

 fishes is not, upon examinations of this nature, the 

 only thing that affects the imagination : the extreme 

 disproportion of their first appearance in the water 

 after being hatched, and that of their full growth, as 

 well as the difference between the magnitude of fish of 

 various kinds, and that of their eggs, are striking 

 curiosities. The egg of a smelt, 1 for example, which 

 weighs at its full growth but three or four ounces, ap- 

 peared larger than that of a cod of twenty pounds* 

 weight, and which might have grown to forty ; whilst 

 that of a stickleback 2 , the smallest of all known fish, 

 was found to be above six times bigger than the largest 

 egg he had ever noticed in a smelt. 



(1) In Latin, Osmerus eperlanus. 



1 2) In Latin, Gasterosteus pungitius. 



