OF SPINOUS FISHES IN GENERAL. 237 



numbers, in plafhes that continue to have water ; and where the quantity 

 is fo great, that they are left in fhoals on fwannps, dried by the fun, and 

 their putrefadion contributes to render the country unhealthful. 



A fingle herring, multiplying unmolefted and undiminifhed for twenty- 

 years, would furnilTi a progeny greater in bulk than ten times our globe j 

 fo that the porpefle, the fhark, the cod-fifh, are benefaftors, without 

 whofe afliftance the fea would foon become overcharged with the bur- 

 then of its own produftions. 



Their fpawn is depofited where the fun-beams may reach it, either at 

 the bottom of fhallow fhores, or on the furface in deeper waters. A 

 fmall degree of heat anfwers the purpofes of incubation, and the animal 

 iffues from the egg in perfect formation. 



Annually, in July, there appear near Greenwich fhoals of fmall fifhes, 

 called by the Londoners White Bait. It is univerfally agreed that they 

 are the young of fome fiih : they are never feen but at this time, and 

 never have any roe. The quantity is amazing; and the fifh that pro- 

 duces them in fuch numbers muft be in plenty, though it is not yet 

 known what that fifh is, as they correfpond with no other fpecies what- 

 ever. Some think them the young of fome animal not yet come to per- 

 fect form. 



The manner in which the eggs of fifhes are impregnated, is wholly un- 

 known ; but fuppofed to be by the male fhedding his milt on them, when 

 he meets them. Spinous fifhes produce by fpawn j yet fome, as the eel 

 and the blenny, bring forth their young alive. 



With refpccl to the growth of fifhes, it is obferved that CARPS, the 

 firfl year, grow to about the fize of a willow leaf j at two years, are about 

 four inches long ; the third feafon, five inches j at four years old, fix 

 inches; the fifth, feven ; afterwards from eight to twelve inches. Sea- 

 fifh, the fifhermen aflure us, mufl be fix years old before it is fit for 

 table. They afl^ure us, MACKAREL, a year old, are as large as one's 

 finger; thofe of two years, twice that length ; at three and four years, 

 they are that fmall kind of mackarel,' without melts or roes ; between five 

 and fix, they are full-grown fifh. With regard to fiat fifhes, they tell us 

 the turbot and barbel, at one year, are about the fize of a crown piecp ; 

 the fecond year, as large as the palm of one's hand j nor till the fifth and 

 fixth year, large enough for table. So that fifh are a confiderable time 

 in coming to their full growth, and are along time deftrcvt J_, before they 

 become dcflroyers* 



Of 



