58 PAIRING OF SALMON. 



lar, and confused heap. What pain the animal suf- 

 fers, or whether she suffers any in thus laying 

 her eggs, no one can tell ; but it is likely that some 

 exertion is required, and any such exertion must 

 occupy a small portion of time. I remember some 

 time back, watching the whole progress of the 

 caterpillar {phalcena wavaria'), which destroys the 

 gooseberry leaves. I saw the fly lay her eggs, 

 about a dozen, on the inside of a leaf; she appeared 

 to exert herself exceedingly, and there was an 

 interval of, at least, a minute or more between the 

 production of every egg, and ehe left the leaf be- 

 fore she had disposed of a fiftieth part of her bur- 

 then, to place the remainder on other leaves, well 

 knowing that she ought not to fix more young on 

 one leaf, than that leaf, after they were hatched, 

 could support. There was also an instinctive method 

 in placing the eggs, which was always on the rib of 

 the leaf. I say instinctive, because they are all 

 disposed after the same manner, as I have seen by 

 thousands of them. Now, suppose the salmon 

 were to occupy a minute in thus systematically and 

 regularly dropping every pea. Perhaps no one 

 would think this an unreasonable supposition ; but 

 before we accede to this, let us pause for a mo- 

 ment, and look at the consequence. Why she 

 would then be ten thousand hours, or four hundred 

 and sixteen days in the accomplishment of her la- 

 bour, without allowing one moment for rest or food. 

 This, then, is absolutely and self-evidently impossi- 

 ble, without the aid of proof or the necessity of 



