THE QUESTION OF FISH GROWTH. 11 



jealous care from the hand of man, but at the same season 

 the herring is offered up a wholesale sacrifice to the destroyer. 

 It is only at its period of spawning that the herring is fished. 

 How comes it to pass that what is a high crime and misde- 

 meanour in the one instance is a government-rewarded merit in 

 the other? To kiU a gravid salmon is as nearly as possible 

 felony ; but to kill a herring as it rests on the spawning-bed is 

 an act at once meritorious and profitable ! 



Having given my readers a general idea of the fecundity 

 of fish, and the method of fructifying the eggs, and of the de- 

 Telopment of these into fish — for, of course, the process will ' 

 be nearly the same with all kinds of fish eggs, the only dif- 

 ference perhaps being that the eggs of some varieties wiU 

 take a longer time to hatch than those of others — I will now 

 consider the question of fish growth. 



All fish are not oviparous. There is a well-known blenny 

 which is viviparous, the young of which at the time of their 

 birth are so perfect as to be able to swim about with great ease ; 

 and this fish is also very productive. Our skate fishes are all 

 viviparous. " The young are enclosed in a homy capsule of an 

 oblong square shape, with a filament at each corner. It is nour- 

 ished by means of an umbilical bag till the due period of exclu- 

 sion arrives, when it enters upon an independent existence." I 

 could name a few other fish which are viviparous. In the fish- 

 room of the British Museum may be seen one of these. It is 

 known as Ditrema argentea, and is plentifully found in South 

 America. But information on this portion of the natural his- 

 tory of fish is still very obscure. Many facts of fish bio- 

 graphy have yet to be ascertained, which, if we knew, would 

 probably conduce to stricter economy of fish life and better 

 regulation of the fisheries. Beyond a knowledge of gene- 

 ralities, the kingdom of the sea is a sealed book. No person 

 can" tell, for example, how long a time elapses from the birth of 

 any particular fish till it is brought to table. Sea fish grow up 

 unheeded — quite, in a sense, out of the bounds of observation. 

 Naturalists can only guess at what rate a cod-fish grows. The 

 life of a herring, in its most important phase, is still a mystery ; 

 and at what age mackerel or other fish becomes reproductive, 

 who can say? The salmon is the one fish that has hitherto 

 been compelled to render up to those inquiring the secret of 

 its birth and the ratio of its growth. We have imprisoned this 

 valuable fish La artificial ponds, and by robbing it of its eggs 



