50 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



rainy season are left unhatehed in the mud through the 

 dry season, and, from their low state of organisation as 

 ova. the vitality is preserved till the occurrence and 

 contact of the rain and the oxygen of the next wet 

 season, when vivification takes place from their joint 

 influence. "Tf this solution of the problem," continues 

 our author. iC be the true one, it points at once to what 

 perhaps may be effected after a few experiments, — 

 namely, the artificial fecundation of the roe, the drying 

 of that roe (or of other roe naturally impregnated) 

 sufficiently to prevent decomposition, and its possible 

 transportation to, and vivification in, distant countries." 



(51.) Contrasted with these instances of fishes living 

 in heated water, there are numberless others proving their 

 vitality even in a frozen state. It is even said, that in 

 northern latitudes, advantage is taken of this circumstance 

 to transport eels and perch from one locality to another. 

 It must not be supposed, however, that this vitality 

 exists in all species inhabiting the same latitudes; and we 

 can illustrate this idea by a fact which has unfortunately 

 come under our personal observation. Upon the breaking 

 up of the long and severe frost of this winter (1837-8), 

 we have had the mortification of seeing the dead bodies 

 of between thirty and forty fine t?nch floating on the 

 surface of a pond in the garden, into which three or 

 four pair had been put four years ago. The pond is of 

 rain water, with a soft muddy bottom, which has a depth 

 of from two to four feet, and is fringed with many 

 aquatic plants. Abundant shelter was thus afforded for 

 the fish ; and yet there can be no doubt, we think, that 

 they have all been killed by cold. The people about 

 the place assert that this mortality would not have hap- 

 '., had holes been broke in the ice for the admission 

 of air: but were this absolutely necessary in all cases, it 

 would follow that the tench of all such ponds as had 

 not been opened would have been likewise killed. 



(52.) The fecundity of fishes is something so pro- 

 digious as to stagger the belief of ordinary minds. When 

 we say that a single female lays hundreds of thousands 



