454. H?sTORY or 



lecuiidity. All sorts, a fe«*- of the larger ones excepted, iiuilfi- 

 ply their kind, some by luim?veds, and some by millions. Tbere 

 are some that bring forth their young alive, and some that only 

 produce eggs : the former are rather the least fruitful ; yet even 

 these are seen to produce in great abundance. The viviparous 

 blenny, for instance, brings forth two or three hundred at a time, 

 all alive, and playing round the parent together. Those who 

 exclude their progeny in a more imperfect state, and produce 

 eggs, which they are obliged to leave to chance, either on the 

 bottom, at the edge of the water, or floating on the surface where 

 it is deeper, are all much more prolific ; and seem to proportion 

 their stock to the danger there is of its consumption. Of these 

 eggs thus deposited, scarcely one in a hundred brings forth an 

 animal j they are devoured by all the lesser fry that frequent the 

 shores ; by aquatic birds near the margin ; and by the larger fish 

 in deep water. Still, however, there are enough for supplying 

 the deep with inhabitants ; and, notwithstanding their own ra- 

 pacity, and that of the fowls of various tribes, the numbers that 

 escape are sufficient to relieve the wants of a very considerable 

 part of mankind. Indeed, when we consider the numbers that 

 a single fish is capable of producing, the amount will seem 

 astonishing. If, for instance, we should be told of a being so 

 very prolific, that in a single season it could bring forth as many 

 of its kind as there are inhabitants in England, it would strike 

 us with surprise ; yet a single cod produces full that number. 

 The cod spawns in one season, as Lewenhoeck assures us, above 

 nine million of eggs or peas, contained in one single roe. The 

 flounder is commonly known to produce above one million ; and 

 the mackarel above five hundred thousand. Such an amazing 

 increase, if permitted to come to maturity, would overstock na- 

 ture, and even the ocean itself would not be able to contain, 

 much less to provide for, the half of its inhabitants. But two 

 wise purposes are answered by this amazing increase ; it pre- 

 serves the species in the midst of numberless enemies, and 

 serves to furnish the rest with a sustenance adapted to their 

 nature. 



Fishes seem, all except the whale kind, entirely divested of 

 those parental solicitudes which so strongly mark the manners 

 of the more perfect terrestrial animals. How far they copulate 

 remains as yet a doubt ; for though they seem to join, yet the 



