BEFORE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 155 



tmds ; so that there should always be a free 

 passage for fish, that early fish may go up as well 

 as late fish ; no burning should be allowed in a 

 river, by which all spawning fish may be killed; 



NOTES. 



nomenon that the naturalist, and the most acute observer 

 of these things, never guessed at? It always puzzled me to 

 understand how the young fry should first appear from an 

 egg not larger than a pea, since they could not then exceed 

 half an inch in length, and would be exposed, unable to 

 protect themselves, to the ravenous jaws of trout, eels, 

 and other fish ; independently of their own parents, who, as 

 some say, are always on the watch to seize and devour 

 them. It seemed an impossibility ; but the fact is now ex 

 plained : the eggs, differently from the eggs of birds, must 

 grow, after exclusion from the body of the parent ; this they 

 do, until they attain a size capable of producing a fish of three 

 inches in length, for they are never seen less, and the angler 

 frequently takes them of that size. Then it is that they 

 burst into life ; and, as Mr. Little says, " the tails come up 

 first, part of the pea sticking about them." This last remark 

 is a strong corroboration of the above discovery : for if 

 they were so small, as they must be if they proceeded from 

 an egg not larger than a pea, it would be very unlikely 

 that they should in the water be able to be seen at a dis- 

 tance, with their tail first appearing, and the pea sticking 

 on them. 



Those who have means, opportunity, and curiosity to 

 investigate the wonderful works of the Almighty, may, by 

 an experiment, ascertain whether or not there is any truth 

 in this deduction. It is, at least, far more probable than 

 that the pea should remain in the sand-beds, in the state 



