172 PROCESS OF HATCHING. 



PISCATOR. I will tell you as well as I can the 

 little I know of the process collected from my 

 own observations. The embryo fish undergoes 

 development, gradually increasing in size from 

 the absorption of the substance of the yolk, and 

 the conversion of that substance into the sub- 

 stance of its various dissimilar organs. This is 

 the most remarkable of metamorphoses. When 

 near its full time, an absorption, I believe, of the 

 shell commences and proceeds till rendered so 

 thin as to be no longer able to resist the force 

 acting on it within that is, the efforts of the 

 foetal fish. But as the foetus is folded in the 

 egg so as to form nearly a circle, its muscular 

 exertions to straighten itself, chiefly by the ac- 

 tion of the tail, impel it forward, and the head 

 being one of the firmest parts of the body, the 

 probability is that the membrane will yield to 

 it, and that the young fish will be impelled 

 head foremost into its world of waters. Some- 

 times, as I have seen, the tail first appears ; 

 this is a mishap, and it may be of a fatal kind, 

 for the tail being the chief moving power of the 

 fish, its action, impelling forwards, tends rather 

 to prevent than promote the extrication of the 

 head. It is a somewhat curious sight to see 



