OF FISHES IN GENERAL. 
thofe nations, whom arts and agriculture have rendered 
lcfs dependent on this precarious fupport, fuperftition 
ha$ come in the place of want, and given a new edge to 
their avidity for this fpecies of food. From the inva- 
sions, therefore, of terreftrial animals, and from their 
own mutual rapacity, the annual confumption of fillies 
is conftant and immenfe ; but the munificent Author of 
Nature has made a kind provifion for his creatures, by 
the amazing fertility which he has conferred on this 
olafs of beings. 
The fecundity of fifh in general far furpaffes that of 
Any other animals ; in iome, it exceeds belief, for there 
are individuals among this clals of .he animal kingdom 
capable of producing, in one year, a greater number of 
their fpecies than all the inhabitants of Great Britain. Nine 
millions of ova have been found in the ipawn of a lingie 
cod * ; one million, three hundred, and fifty-feven thou- 
fand, four hundred, have been taken from the belly of a 
flounder : The mackerel, carp, tench, and a variety of 
other fpecies, are faid to potTefs a degree of fertility but 
little inferior f. 
Such an aftonilhing progeny, were it allowed to ar- 
rive at maturity, and to add the whole of its number to 
the reft of the family, would foon overftock Nature, and 
even the ocean itfelf would not be able to contain, much 
lefs to provide for the half of its inhabitants. Of the 
°va fpawned by thefe different fifh, however, probably 
not one in an hundred ever becomes a full-grown am- 
ma l : They are devoured by the leffer fry that frequent 
file lliores, by aquatic birds near the margin, and by 
the 
* Hr. Lewenloch. 
1 Vide Farmer’s calculations, Philofcphical Tranfa&ions, 1767° 
