EGGS OF VAEIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 211 



supply, the whole world with abundance of food, but 

 would become inconveniently numerous. The average 

 number of ova in a salmon is stated at twelve thousand ; 

 if it were possible that all those eggs produced fish 

 and they arrived at maturity, there would be twelve 

 thousand salmon, or six thousand pairs, whose pro- 

 duce, at the same rate, would be seventy-two millions. 

 "Were it not that vast numbers of the eggs are de- 

 stroyed, fish would so multiply as to fill the waters com- 

 pletely. 



There are many anomalies connected with the growth 

 ■of fish which naturalists have apparently never been 

 able to resolve. "We, know of the great waste of fish 

 life which must take place in the sea, of the number- 

 less eggs that are never impregnated by the milt, and of 

 the countless millions which are devoured by enemies ; 

 we know also that out of a million of young codfish only 

 a, small percentage will ever reach the market or become 

 of any commercial value ; but what we should like to 

 know is, how it comes that a fish counting its spawn by 

 the million is scarcer than fishes which yield their eggs 

 •only in thousands ? A codfish of fair dimensions sheds 

 upwards of three millions and a half of eggs, a flounder 

 .also gives its eggs by the million. A small one of this 

 species, which was weighed and the ova counted, actually 

 spawned 1,351,400 eggs. The fish next in order as to 

 quantity of spawn is the mackarel, which yields about 

 500,000 ova. The yield of a herring is 37,000 eggs. 

 Now, the herring excels most of the fish we have 

 named in plentifulness, and we have never yet seen 

 An explanation of the cause. Can any naturalist tell 

 us for certain that these large fishes deposit their spawn 

 annually ? We have some doubts of the fact ourselves, 

 -and for the very obvious reason that the herring, with 

 its 37,000 eggs, is our most plentiful fish, whilst the cod, 

 with its 4,000,000 or more of ova, is annually becoming 

 less plentiful. 



Sturgeon Caviare. — In Eussia, when the eggs of the 

 sturgeon have been taken from the fish, they are carried 



F 2 



