CHAPTER IV. 



LIFE-HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF A FISH FROM A 

 PELAGIC EGG. 



The perusal of the foregoing chapter on the pelagic animals 

 will demonstrate the inexhaustible nature of the food provided 

 for fishes at every season of the year, and, further, will indicate 

 how little reliance is to be placed on the opinions of those who 

 imagine that man can to any serious extent, by any method of 

 fishing at present practised, denude the bottom of the ocean of 

 its inhabitants. It has already been shown by one of us, that 

 even though it were granted that a particular area of the sea 

 were by the agency of man rendered " barren " the next tide 

 would bring in a sufficient stock of temporarily pelagic forms 

 to settle on the bottom and re-people the hypothetical waste, 

 and that with rapidity. 



Under this rich food, the young fishes grow apace — head 

 and eyes, mouth and accessory organs, body and fins — -all 

 rapidly increase, and the little fish, hatched in the spring, say 

 from March to May, is soon in what is known as the post-larval 

 stage, that is, has a mouth, has lost its yolk-sac, has assumed a 

 more or less uniform tint, and has gill-fringes and teeth. It 

 is about a quarter of an inch long, and is both active and in- 

 telligent, the large head and large eyes of the young food-fishes 

 being at this stage specially conspicuous, and in marked contrast 

 with such as the sea-scorpion (Cottus). The marginal fin is 

 continuous at a quarter of an inch, and the lancet-like termina- 

 tion of the caudal end of the body is noteworthy. 



