THE CARP FAMILY. 109 



brothers. The distance between their two rods and baits 

 at the time the fish took the latter could not have been 

 less than several yards, and the floats disappeared almost 

 at the same moment, both anglers striking together, and 

 the Carp being lifted out between them. 



The Carp is extraordinarily prolific — so much so that the 

 roe of a single female, if allowed to arrive at maturity, 

 would be an ample stock for many acres of water. In a fish 

 of 9 lbs. weight Bloch found 600,000 eggs, and Schneider 

 700,000 in one of 10 lbs. weight. Even these numbers, 

 however, astonishing as they are, sink into insignificance 

 when compared with those of the ova of the Sturgeon. In 

 the Volga, where this fish grows to from 13 to 16 feet long, 

 200 lbs. of roe have been taken from one specimen, which, 

 at the rate given by Pallas, viz. five eggs to the grain, 

 would make a total of 7,000,000. From one of these 

 Volga Sturgeon, captured in the winter of 1769 and mea- 

 suring 17 feet, 720 lbs. of roe were taken, containing on the 

 same calculation 25,200,000 eggs. This account, however, 

 applies only to Sturgeon of Northern waters, for M. Petit 

 found less than 1,500,000 ova in a large specimen from 

 the south of Europe. The same gentleman counted 60,000 

 eggs in a Smelt, 350,000 in a Tench, 50,000 in a Roach, 

 6000 in a Shrimp, from 12,000 to 21,000 in a Lobster, 

 4000 in a Crab, 36,000 in a Herring, 9,000,000 in a Cod, 

 1,500,000 in a Mackerel, 1,000,000 in a Sole, and the 

 same number in a large Flounder. Even the liquor of the 

 Oyster contains incredible multitudes of small embryos 



