1 64 Poachers and Poach ing. 



what evolutions he indulges. He rises and falls, 

 now passing over, now under her, and settling 

 first upon this side, then upon that. Observe, 

 too, how he drives off the young unfertile fish 

 which are ever lying in wait to devour the 

 spawn. The eggs are deposited at intervals in 

 the sand, and when the milt has been fertilised 

 the whole is covered over, there to remain until 

 spring. The salmon deposits nearly a thousand 

 eggs for every pound of its live weight, and from 

 the quantity of spawn in some salmon rivers it 

 would seem that nothing which man could do- 

 save pollution would have any appreciable in- 

 fluence upon the increase of the species. The 

 fecundity of trout is even greater than that of 

 salmon, while a tiny smelt of only two ounces 

 contains upwards of thirty-five thousand eggs, 

 and even these are as nothing compared with 

 the rate of increase of several marine and 

 " coarse" fish. An individual cod has yielded 

 more than six million ; a turbot fourteen 

 million ; and a twenty-eight pound conger esl 

 fifteen million eggs. 



The eggs of salmon are nearly as large as the 

 seed of a garden pea, and those of good trout 

 only slightly less. The ova is of a delicate 

 salmon colour and the cell-walls are semi-trans- 

 parent so much so that the embryo shows 

 plainly through. Although delicate in appear- 



