does by pressing her belly against pebbles, or any other 

 hard substance at the bottom of the water. The eggs 

 flow from her by the anus. She previously prepares a 

 sort of hole to receive them. 



Then comes the male, and by a like pressure he re- 

 lieves himself of the milt, which flows also from the 

 anus on to the eggs, and fecundates them. The fish 

 afterwards cover up the eggs with sand or pebbles, or 

 leave them, and in due time the eggs become transformed 

 into fish. 



II. 



The quantity of eggs which the female fish of all sorts 

 deposit is very considerable ; of some it is truly prodi- 

 gious. The carp, for example, produces a"bout a quarter 

 of a million at a time ; the perch a great many more ; 

 the trout seven or eight hundred; the salmon several 

 hundred ; the sturgeon between six and seven millions ; 

 and the pike a vast number. A very small portion of 

 milt suffices to give life to a large quantity of eggs. It 

 would therefore appear that nothing in the world ought 

 to be more abundant than fish of all descriptions. 



But only a very small portion indeed of the eggs 

 come to maturity; some naturalists calculate that not 

 one in a hundred do so. Of the rest no inconsiderable 

 portion are devoured by other fish. The males of some 

 species, and indeed the females too, also eat their own 

 eggs. And a great quantity are destroyed by getting 

 mixed with mud and dirt. 



