12 . NATURAL HISTORY. 



or molars ; still, from their figure it can be determined 

 whether the possessor belongs to the race of carnivora, 

 or lives on vegetable aliment. 



In the former they are bullet-shaped, or sharp and 

 pointed, sometimes filling the mouth, palate, and even 

 disposed all over the tongue, as, for. instance, in the pike. 

 In others, that live on vegetables and worms, they are 

 either cartilaginous, or entirely wanting, as in the carp. 

 It is doubtful whether fish ever sleep, as they keep going 

 both night and day after bait, but it has been clearly 

 ascertained that they pass the winter in a benumbed 

 state, hidden in the mud. With few exceptions, fish lay 

 eggs which are called roe or spawn; the females are 

 therefore designated as spawners; the male, milters. 

 When the time for spawning has arrived, they leave the 

 deep waters and ascend the shallower streams, either 

 because the temperature, being warmer, is more favor- 

 able for the development of the roe, or that more water 

 plants are found on the shores, to which the spawn can 

 adhere. The reproductive powers of fishes are incredible ; 

 the roe of a sturgeon has been known to weigh two hun- 

 dred pounds ; each pound containing thirty thousand eggs, 

 makes the whole number found in the roe amount to six 

 millions ; those of the stock fish have been reckoned to 

 number nine millions ; those of the carp thirty thousand ; 

 herrings forty thousand. This astonishing capability of 

 increase, which is a substantial fact, is modified by cir- 

 cumstances which serve to regulate the number produced 

 to a more proportionate medium. The enemies of fishes 

 and their spawn are innumerable ; waterfowls, carniver- 

 ous fishes, reptiles, seals, dolphins, the polar bear, but 

 especially man, pursue them unrelentingly, and thus the 

 myriads of spawn form the food of different species. No 



