266 The Mackerel 



their liking, the deposition of the ova began, and was 

 carried on intermittently for the best part of two days, 

 the male fish apparently keeping severe guard, and 

 maintaining a strict supervision over all the proceedings. 

 At last the task was over, the females languidly made 

 for the exit, while the males lingered over the spots 

 which the females had quitted, as if loth to leave them, 

 until, as if alarmed at the prospect of losing touch 

 with their consorts, the two great fish gave each a 

 sweep or two in the clear water with their tails, and shot 

 through the entrance between the towering bastions 

 of rock as arrows flee from the bow. 



In an hour they had rejoined the females, guided 

 by unerring instinct in their track, and placing them- 

 selves at the head of the little company sped onward 

 in search of food, their long fast having made them 

 furious with hunger. Presently they fell in with a 

 great school of bonito, who, taken by surprise, became 

 utterly demoralised with fear, and huddling together 

 in one compact mass permitted the ravenous monsters 

 to dash again and again into their midst, with such 

 velocity as to split sometimes four bodies into fragments 

 at one blow. Such fragments were not immediately 

 devoured, but when the slaughter was over the Sword- 

 fish swam hither and thither, gorging themselves in 

 leisurely fashion upon the dismembered bodies of 

 their cousins, until, surfeited, they turned away and 

 left the befouled area to a shoal of small scavengers, 

 which had during the great meal kept respectfully 

 at a distance. 



But now let us return to the spawning ground. 

 There upon the speckless floor of sand lay evenly 

 spread countless thousands of eggs, each large as a 

 marrowfat pea, and almost invisible by reason of their 

 pearly transparency. The dark spot in each, that 



