THE KATE OP GROWTH OF FOOD-FISHES. 113 



grow, through the mid-water and surface and thence to the 

 shore, is indicated by special markings at each stage. 



It may be noticed that the close approximation to the same 

 parallel of the limiting curves is an additional justification of 

 the view that the greater part of the disparity in size of young 

 fishes at any date is due to a disparity in age, which is itself 

 made possible by the prolonged spawning-period. 



Further remarks upon this table will be found in the part 

 dealing with the herring. 



It is patent to all that, notwithstanding what has been done 

 in this branch of ichthyology, the results are at present very 

 meagre, and although the experiments upon fish-eggs may 

 lead us in the right direction for elucidating the laws which 

 govern the growth of fishes and may enable us eventually to 

 reduce them to concrete terms, yet this end is at present 

 distant. Every step in advance has however its peculiar 

 interest from a general point of view, for the fishes, with their 

 simpler organisation and their less fixed and definite pre- 

 determining influences, lend themselves the more readily to 

 experimental investigation, and form a vantage point from 

 which to make a flank attack upon the great problems of 

 growth and reproduction — as exemplified in their greatest 

 complexity by the higher Vertebrates, including man himself 



M. F. 



