116 CONCLUSION, 



actually is a great difference in the fecundity of 

 different fish, arising from their nature, age, and 

 size, and, perhaps, from the season of the year. 

 But the estimate which I have made is founded on 

 a reported experiment. There may be great dif- 

 ficulty in fixing an average number of ova where 

 fish vary in size from 8 and 10 pounds to 60 and 70; 

 for it cannot be imagined that a small fish will 

 yield as many pea as a large one. About four 

 years ago I was very desirous of ascertaining this 

 fact, but no book could furnish the desired infor- 

 mation. At last, after much inquiry, I met with 

 a person who assured me, as I have already stated, 

 that he had counted a certain portion, and after- 

 wards, by weighing what remained, he judged the 

 whole to be 600,000. 



There is no reasoning from analogy to other fish ; 

 us a proof of which we have only to refer to the pro- 

 duce of the sturgeon, the cod, and the crab. Even 

 the little herring has a roe containing 10,000 ova: 

 and it is said by Goldsmith, vol. ii. 410 415, that 

 the progeny of a single one, suffered to multiply 

 unmolested and undiminished for twenty years, 

 would become greater in bulk than ten such 

 globes as that we inhabit. Let us not wonder, 

 then, or think it at all extraordinary, that so 

 large a fish -as a salmon, of perhaps 20, 30, or 

 40 pounds, should produce so many pea. Yet it is 

 remarkable, that no author, in the history of this 

 .fish, that I could ever find, gives the amount by 

 experiment, or even ventures a. statement upon it. 



