THE ANGLER FAMILY 339 



to 100 feet square. An excellent description with figures of 

 this spawn and of the young of the angler (larvae) was given as 

 long ago as 1882 by Alexander Agassiz in America. Accord- 

 ing to this account the real dimensions of the sheet of spawn 

 were considerably less, namely, 2 to 3 feet in breadth and 

 from 25 to 30 feet long. The mucus was of a violet-grey 

 colour, and the black pigment of the larvae gave it a blackish 

 appearance. The eggs were in a single layer. Agassiz found 

 the spawn in the latter part of August. In Scotland the spawn 

 sheets have been found : one stranded on the shore in July, 

 in the Firth of Forth, was 36 feet long and 10 inches wide. 

 Two other specimens were obtained in February. 



At Plymouth a sheet of the spawn was received from Mr. 

 Dunn, of Mevagissey, on June 24th. According to his account 

 he saw it from the cliffs as a dark coloured patch in the water, 

 and next day took a boat, found it, and brought it ashore. It 

 was between 20 and 30 feet long and 18 inches wide. It was far 

 advanced in development, and the young fish being black could 

 be seen in it " like currants in a cake," struggling to get out. A 

 large number of larvae were hatched from this spawn in the 

 Plymouth aquarium, and some were preserved, but as I was absent 

 when the spawn arrived no very careful study was made of it. 



Each egg inside its cavity is rather large, r/5 mm. or y^ 

 inch. The space between the egg and the envelope is also 

 rather large. It appears evident from the description and figures 

 of Agassiz that the sheet of spawn is simply formed by the outer 

 surface of the egg-membranes being jelly-like and sticky, so that 

 they become attached to one another before leaving the roe of 

 the mother. It will be easily understood that if the eggs of the 

 herring were to stick together in a singler layer, the membranes 

 remaining soft and pliable instead of being stiff, and the whole 

 layer were to float in the sea, we should have just the state of 

 things which we find in the spawn of the angler. 



Dr. Fulton gives some observations on the roe of the fish as 

 taken from the female. He states that one taken from a fish 

 nearly 4 feet long, was 36 feet in length, 10 inches broad in the 

 centre, and 6 inches at the ends. The number of the eggs was 

 computed to be 1,345,000. The eggs were pear-shaped and 

 attached to the inner surface of the roe by the narrow end. It 

 would -appear from these remarks, although they are not suffi- 



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