A MOMENT OF ANXIETY. 185 



merits are thinner and more porous, and thus they 

 are fitter for impregnation — for absorbing the 

 milt of the male as it is poured over them. There 

 is another reason why all the ova cannot be de- 

 posited at once. It is forced from the fish, or 

 rather the fish forces it from itself by pressure — 

 by forcing itself into the gravel of the nest. No 

 natural pressure would be sufiicient to expel the 

 ova at once. When artificial pressure is employed 

 — I mean manual pressure — the mature ova alone 

 come freely away through the vent ; the immature 

 ova remain firmly inclosed within their reticulated 

 tissues or membranes — within, as it were, their 

 net-work fastenings. Although the unripe ova 



disappointed. This state of matters continues until night- 

 fall, and yet no discernible change. Next morning, how- 

 ever, the ova having been now 135 days deposited, he finds 

 the shells yielding fast to the pressure from within — numbers 

 already burst, numbers bursting, and numbers yet re- 

 maining whole. This is the moment of anxiety — the 

 long-looked-for period has now arrived — that of a new 

 generation of fish being launched from a state of thraldom 

 into one of liberty, and into their own natural element. 

 They are now cast abroad amidst the waters with Nature 

 for their only guide ; to her provisions their parents have 

 left them 135 days ago, and she has formed them to thrive 

 without nurse or protector, and sent them forth on a hazard- 

 ous journey provisioned for four or five weeks, and she 

 exhibits them in all their history and habits amongst the 

 strangest and most wonderful works of creation." 



