NUTRIMENT, HOW CONVEYED. 141 



interesting point in our inquiries, viz., the 

 nutrition of the young fish, how carried on \ 

 That is to say, how does the nutriment 

 contained in the umbilical vesicle become 

 absorbed into the body of the fish 1 This 

 question, interesting as it is, has never 

 before, I believe, been satisfactorily answered. 

 Mr. Buckland showed me a large drawing of a 

 young salmon magnified sixty -six diameters, 

 in which a duct is represented leading out 

 of the umbilical vesicle just above the large oil 

 globule, and tending backwards and upwards 

 into the body of the fish, where it bifurcates 

 and is lost a little above the main artery ; 

 asking me to inquire into the matter and find 

 out whether the duct was a fact or not ; and 

 if it were truly so, then where it led from 

 and to. To this point I have, then, devoted 



