OVA OF THE SKATE-FISH. 
Having discovered that a peculiar-looking substance, apparently the seed of 
some kind of sea-weed, was, in fact, the egg of the Skate-fish, I was induced to 
examine the same more minutely : in doing which I made the following observa¬ 
tions :— 
This egg is of a pale sea-green colour, becoming darker with age ; in form it is 
a quadrangle, having at each corner long tuberous projections run¬ 
ning parallel to each other from the narrow side of the shell, thus : ^3 ( j 
These horn-like tubes are open at their ends, through which the 
sea-water is admitted. The shell is tough, elastic, and extremely difficult to open 
—indeed not easily with the assistance of a knife—and very liable to shrink when 
laid to dry, unless it is first filled with sand. They differ much in size, depending, 
I am inclined to believe, on the size of the fish. On some shells I have observed 
sea-weed growing—an interesting fact, as it shows either the rapidity with which 
sea-weed will spring up, or the length of time before the fish is perfect; perhaps 
both, for one fish, which appeared on the verge of breaking the shell, I kept for 
examination, and it was one month before it assumed a perfect state. 
As it would be tedious to mention the state of perfection the fish was found in, 
I will confine myself to the following observations :— 
On opening the shell, a substance, having motion, is found, but so little form¬ 
ed as scarcely to be ascertained what it is. It is an embryo fish, attached by a 
tough sinuous substance* (rather difficult to cut in two) to the upper surface of 
something of the size and shape of a Sparrow’s egg. Though in its earliest stage 
a person may conjecture what it is, yet, from its shapeless appearance, no one can 
speak with any certainty. It has a pale, watery appearance, and moves its tail with 
difficulty, as though it was a piece of sinew—a motion it possesses before it is 
spawned.-)' The pale colour becomes red, until it has the appearance of raw flesh, 
owing to the skin being transparent; it afterwards has the outward resemblance 
of a full-grown Skate. 
The egg is covered with innumerable blood-vessels branching from one main 
trunk, which takes its rise from underneath the sinew by which the fish is attach¬ 
ed to it, and running in parallel directions down the sides, are ultimately united to 
another large blood-vessel which runs into the same place from which the former 
main trunk sprung. From this I am inclined to suppose that the former is an 
artery conveying the nutritious blood through the egg; having performed that 
* This substance I had to cut with a penknife. 
*j- This statement appears correct; for one of these fish (in its earliest stage), having 
died, was cut from the egg to examine the latter, and then put aside: it soon dried up and 
became perfectly fiat. 
