CHAP, i.] DO FISH LIVE A SEPARATE LIFE? 



are about to perform tlie grandest action of their nature, and 

 that till that period each animal lives a separate and individual 

 life. If we set down the sense of smell as the power which 

 attracts the fish sexes, we shall be very nearly correct : such 

 cold-blooded animals cannot very well have any more powerful 

 instinct. A very clever Spanish writer on pisciculture hints 

 that the fish have no amatory feeling for each other at that 

 period, thus forming a curious exception to most other ani- 

 mals, and that it is the smell of the roe in the female that at- 

 tracts the male. As the writer well expresses it "The curious 

 phenomenon of the fecundation of the eggs or spawn of the 

 female fish away from the bowels of the mothers, and independ- 

 ent of their co-operation in every way, constitutes an inter- 

 esting exception to the almost universal law of instinct and 

 sympathy in the sexes a law simple in its essence, as are all 

 nature's laws, but most prolific in its results ; for we see it 

 pass through all the phases of an immense series, from the 

 phenomena of organic attraction shown by the first-named 

 living beings up to the great passions of love and maternity 

 in the human species, forming the affectionate and solid bases 

 of families and the imperishable foundation of society." 



This idea viz. as to the shoaling of the fish at the period 

 of spawning only has been prominently thrown out in regard 

 to the herring by parties who do not admit even of a partial 

 migration from the deep to the shallow water, which, however, 

 is an idea that is stoutly held by some writers on the herring 

 question. It is rather interesting, however, in connection with 

 this phase of fish life, to note that particular shoals of her- 

 rings deposit their spawn at particular places, that the eggs 

 come simultaneously to life, and that it is quite certain that the 

 young fish remain together for a considerable period a few 

 months at least after they are hatched. This is well known 

 from the fact of large bodies of young herrings having been 

 caught during the sprat season ; these could not, of course, have 



