b INTRODUCTION. 



At this time, indeed, the observations of Prof. G. O. Sars were 

 little known in this country, the floating or sinking of the eggs 

 of such fishes being vaguely associated with the temperature of 

 the water. Yet Sars had shown at the International Fisheries 

 Exhibition in London this year (1883) a series of drawings 

 illustrative of the development of the cod, and the Americans 

 had for some years been experimenting in the artificial 

 hatching of the same species. 



Fishermen's views. At this time the almost unanimous 

 opinion of British fishermen, and not a few others, was that 

 the common food-fishes sought the shallow water of the bays 

 and inshore grounds for the purpose of depositing their eggs 

 on the bottom, for demersal eggs were alone known to them. 

 There is no doubt that the masses of the eggs of the lump- 

 sucker and sea-scorpion (Gottus) had been in some instances 

 mistaken for those of the haddock, and, so great was the 

 interest, even ingeniously hatched to prove it. Nor were 

 British fishermen alone in this idea. The late Prof Spencer 

 Baird, the originator and first Chief of the American Fish- 

 Commission, found the same condition on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. The fishermen had not the slightest idea of this 

 floating property, but thought that the female food-fishes 

 deposited their eggs on the rocks, where they were fertilised by 

 the males. They had indeed noticed the little transparent 

 bodies in the water, but it never occurred to them that they 

 were the eggs of any fish. In this respect, therefore, as already 

 statetl, they were considerably behind the Norwegian fishermen, 

 who pointed out the pelagic eggs to Prof C 0. Sars. Yet it was 

 only necessary to e.xaniine the more or less ripe " roes " of such 

 fishes as the cod as they were thrown, for instance, amongst the 

 offal on the pier at Ansti-uther to satisfy even the most cautious 

 on the .subject, and more especially by placing the mature eggs 

 in a pail of sea-water. Literally this was the mode by which the 

 late Lord Dalhousie, chairman of the Royal Commission above 

 alluded to, first became acquainted with such pelagic eggs — while 

 waiting at Anstruther for the ship which then carried him sea- 

 wards — where multitudes of similar eggs, mingled with the larval 

 fishes from a few hours to a few days old, filled the tow-nets. 



