30 HABITS AND APPEARANCE IN THE SEA 



twine. The really oviparous fecundated spawn, of which 

 we have specimens, is of a different description, and won- 

 derfully manifests the sublime behests of creation. The 

 proper incubation, as before mentioned, is as follows : — 

 The female remains quiescent at the bottom, the whole of 

 the roe is at once deposited ; the milt, thoroughly ripened 

 in the male, has become changed from a solid mass to a 

 liquid of the colour and consistency of cream ; the roe, 

 although placed in the briny flood, becomes a firm united 

 mass, somewhat larger than, but similar in shape to, 

 the roe in a full herring. This lifeless mass, or egg-bed, 

 has the power of adhesion — it grasps firmly the stones, 

 the rocks, the sea- weed, &c. so much so, that we have 

 found it difficult to remove or separate it until the mass 

 was dried or dead ; the young being thus protected from 

 the effects of storms and currents, to a certain extent 

 from being devoured by fishes, and firmly fixed, probably, 

 ^ in a suitable feeding ground. Thereafter, the eyes are first 

 observable ; at least a small black speck is first seen in the 

 egg. Then the head appears, and in fourteen days, or 

 perhaps three weeks, the young are seen in great abun- 

 dance near the shore, of a very small size ; in six or 

 seven weeks more they are observed to be about three 

 inches in length, and move about in large shoals in 

 winter and spring on the various coasts, and in the 

 rivers and bays generally resorted to by the herring- 

 shoals, and it is likely that tliey attain to full size and 

 maturity in about eighteen months. Lacepede says, that 

 in North America the spawn of the herrings have been 

 carried by the inhabitants and deposited at the mouth 

 of a river which had never been frequented by that fish, 

 and to which place the individual fishes from these 

 spawn acquired a habitude, and returned each year, bring- 



