CHAP. I.] PROPOSAL TO NOTE GROWTH OF SEA FISH. 17 



imprisoned this valuable fish in artificial ponds, and by rob- 

 bing it of its eggs have noted when the young ones were born 

 and how they grew. It would be equally easy to devise a 

 means of observing sea fish. Why should we not erect a 

 great marine observatory, where we could, as in the case of 

 the Stormontfield-bred salmon, watch the young fish burst 

 from its shell, and for a year or two observe and study the 

 progress of the animal, and ascertain its rate of growth, and 

 especially the period at which it becomes reproductive ? The 

 government might act upon this suggestion, and vote a few 

 thousand pounds annually for the support of a series of marine 

 fish-ponds ; for something more is required than the resources 

 of an amateur naturalist to determine how fish live and grow. 



What naturalists chiefly and greatly need in respect 

 of our sea fish is, precise information as to their rate 

 of growth. We have a personal knowledge of the fact of 

 the sea fish selecting our shores as a spawning -ground, but 

 we do not precisely know in some instances the exact time 

 of spawning, how long the spawn takes to quicken into life, 

 or at what rate the fish increase in growth. 



The eel may be taken as an example of our ignorance of 

 fish life. Do our professed naturalists know anything about 

 it beyond its migratory habits? habits which, from sheer 

 ignorance, have at one period or another been guessed as 

 pertaining to all kinds of fish. The tendency to the romantic, 

 specially exhibited in the amount of travelling power bestowed 

 by the elder naturalists on this class of animals, would 

 seem to be very difficult to put down. 



About two years ago an old story about the eel was gravely 

 revived by having the larger portion of a little book devoted 

 to its elucidation an old story seriously informing us that the 

 silver eel is the product of a black beetle. But no one need 

 wonder at a new story about the eel, far less at the revival of 

 this old one ; for the eel is a fish that has at all times experi- 



c 



