FISHES OF OUR NORTH ATLANTIC SEABOARD 
11 
caught with hook and 
line at a depth of not 
more than 20 fath¬ 
oms. The uninjured 
fish is laid on a wet 
board, measured, and 
its exact length re¬ 
corded. A metal tag 
stamped U. S. B. F. 
is then securely at¬ 
tached to the upper 
part of the tail, near 
the base, and the fish 
is released after a 
record is made of 
its number, its size, 
where released, etc. 
It is confidently ex¬ 
pected that many 
fishermen will go to 
the trouble of assist¬ 
ing the Government 
by reporting to Wash¬ 
ington when such 
fish are taken. 
A study of the 
anatomy of fishes 
and the evolution of 
some of their organs 
throws an interesting 
light on life in the 
ocean. 
A FEMALE LOBSTER “IN BERRY” 
The number of eggs produced by a female Lobster varies from 3,coo 
to 75,000, according to its size and age. They are glued to the under¬ 
surface of her body, and carried around for about ten months before hatching 
(see text, page 21). 
WHY FISH HAVE 
SPHERICAL EYES 
In order to see 
under the water, the 
eyes of the fish had 
to be constructed on 
lines differing some¬ 
what from those of 
man and land ani¬ 
mals. Cutting open a 
fish’s eye, one discovers that the crystal¬ 
line lens is almost a perfect sphere in¬ 
stead of the somewhat flattened lens of 
land animals. This arrangement is nec¬ 
essary to sight in the water, since the 
difference in density between the lens and 
the water is so slight. The result is that 
fish are extremely nearsighted. 
The fish’s power of hearing is decidedly 
muffled, and it is believed that what we 
know as the ears are solely organs of 
equilibration, as they partially are in man. 
The sense of taste appears to be largely 
wanting in fish. Their tongues are with¬ 
out power of motion and lack delicate 
membranes. They swallow their food 
very rapidly and usually without mastica¬ 
tion, further than getting it small enough 
to gulp it down. 
FISH, LIKE MEN, LIVE ON AIR 
Air dissolved in water offers fish what 
little oxygen they need, and the oversup¬ 
ply they get when out of water is fatal 
to most species, though some, like the 
Catfishes, can live for a considerable time 
out of their native element. A man uses 
thousands of times as much oxygen as 
a fish. 
The air bladders or swim bladders of 
