OUR ECONOMIC SEA FISHES. 395 



The contents of the aforesaid Food Fish volumes are ostensibly 

 identical, but their treatment somewhat dissimilar. That from 

 St. Andrews is illustrated by twenty-one coloured plates con- 

 taining some 250 figures, besides forty-five woodcuts distributed 

 in the text. These represent the eggs, larval and post-larval 

 conditions of the great bulk of our food-fishes. That from 

 Plymouth has 159 woodcuts, and two maps of the fishing grounds 

 of the British Islands and west coast of Europe. The authors 

 freely acknowledge their indebtedness to the many workers of all 

 countries. Besides other subsidiary matter the text deals with 

 the pelagic fauna generally, egg development, and subsequent 

 growth of the larvae to adolescence onwards; but the major por- 

 tion is devoted to the life -history of particular families and 

 species of Sea Fish used for consumption. All the dry reading 

 on synonymy and the opinions of the early classical or ichthyo- 

 logical writers are dispensed with. Both are excellent epitomes 

 of the methods and results of modern research as adapted to the 

 practical issue of fisheries questions. 



No longer is the fish described from a shrivelled or spirit- 

 preserved specimen. Eather is it now studied in the living con- 

 dition in the aquarium in large tanks, or it is hunted out in its 

 native haunts at all seasons, and frequently even in inclement 

 weather there and then watched and examined in every stage as 

 to age, condition, food, and surroundings. The eggs themselves 

 are fertilized and hatched under the eye of the observer, and 

 from the transparency of the pelagic ova, under the microscope 

 and reagents, every change from fertilization to final hatching 

 can be followed step by step with ease. Thereafter the post- 

 larval changes and habits to adolescence are noted and compared 

 with those of the adults at freedom in the sea. 



While it could have been said with some show of propriety 

 in the early eighties that none or very few indeed of our com- 

 mercial sea-fishes' life-histories were known, now at least it may 

 be affirmed that the great majority of them are tolerably well 

 ascertained. For instance, of the Gadidce, take the Cod as 

 being that whose pelagic ova first attracted Sars' attention, and 

 which have since undergone the close scrutiny of several able 

 naturalists. It spawns from February till May, the female 

 carrying from two to nine million ova. These diminutive glassy 



