XXX. Remarks on the very different Accounts 
that have been given of the Fecundity of 
Fifes, with freff Obfervations on that 
SubjeSl : By Mr. Thomas Harmer ; com- 
municated by Samuel Clark, Efq\ F. R. S; 
Read May 28, K g H E afcertaining the fecundity 
1 of the feveral fpecies of ffih, as far 
at leaft as we are able to do it, is one point ne- 
ceffary to the making our natural hiftories perfect ; 
and at the fame time opens a view wonderfully af- 
fecting to the imagination. 
The carp, in which Petit is faid to have found 
342,144 eggs; and the cod, in one of which of 
middling iize Lewenhoek, it feems, affirmed 
there were 9;3 84,000, have been mentioned 
as very furprizing inftances of this fecun- 
dity ; and by their being fele&ed by writers, 
who appear to have been well verfed in this part of 
learning, they ffiould feem to be the mod memora- 
ble we have of this kind. 
The accounts, ’however, that have been given of 
the friii tfulnefs of thefe two fpecies of ffih differ 
from each other very confiderably. For Brad- 
ley, the Botanic Profcffor at Cambridge fome 
years ago, tells us in his philofophical account 
of the works of nature, a book proffffedly writ- 
ten on a very celebrated, though unexecuted 
