114 THE STORY OF FISH LIFE. 



greatest, obviously, in the case of pelagic eggs, 

 i.e. eggs deposited far out at sea, and which are 

 left, untended, to drift about at or near the 

 surface, at the mercy of wind and tide, or rather 

 current. Countless as may be the eggs of, say, 

 the cod or ling, thousands and thousands must 

 perish from one cause or another long before 

 hatching ; they will have served as food for other 

 fishes, or been borne away by adverse currents 

 and cast ashore ; change of temperature will 

 exterminate many more, and so on. Professor 

 G. 0. Sars has recorded cases in which myriads 

 of cod's eggs have been thrown up on to the 

 beach, forming a long glistening line at high- 

 water mark. 



Many fishes have succeeded in escaping these 

 manifold dangers by fixing their eggs to seaweed, 

 or rocks at the bottom of the sea. Many of these 

 demersal, or deep sea eggs, are also, however, 

 subjected to a heavy tax. They are accordingly 

 produced in great numbers, for though the danger 

 of being carried away in adverse currents has 

 been insured against, there is still provision to 

 be made against the depredation of other fishes. 

 Thus the spawning herrings are followed by 

 countless shoals of haddocks, all greedily con- 

 testing for the newly-shed spawn. And to these 

 natural enemies must now be added man himself, 

 who, with the deadly trawl-net, sweeps away tons 

 of eggs yearly. 



Those fishes, it will have been remarked, which 

 guard their eggs, either by placing them in a 

 nest, or carrying them on the body, lay but few 

 comparatively few for these have eliminated 



