18 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 
although found in every pond, stream and puddle, 
gathers but a mere seventy or eighty eges into the pro- 
tection of his nest, and of the eggs with horny cases, 
only one, or, at the most, two, are deposited at a time. 
It stands to reason that when any particular species 
of fish deposits an enormous quantity of eggs, an enor- 
mous number must also be destroyed, or that particular 
species would soon swamp all other fishes. When investi- 
gating the life history of the roach, I made the following 
count of roach eggs, which may assist in enabling us to 
appreciate the amount of destruction that occurs amongst 
unprotected eggs. 
Along one side of a pond grew a row of poplar trees, 
and on the submerged roots of these trees the roach used 
to lay their eggs. Measuring out fifty yards along the 
bank, with the assistance of two friends, I gathered all 
the eggs in certain measured areas, and estimated that 
in the fifty yards there were seven million five hundred 
thousand eggs. During the next four days a pair of 
ducks busily ate up all the eggs just below the surface 
of the water, shoals of young roach cruising round and 
round, picked them off during the day, and both night 
and day big and little eels literally sucked the roots 
clean. On the fourth day we again counted the eggs in 
similar areas, and estimated that in the place of seven 
millions a mere ten thousand were left. The fish did not 
appear to trouble further about these few scattered eggs, 
but when one considers that a similar destruction occurs 
among young roach, from their larval stages, it will be 
