346 
AMERICAN FISHES . 
bers upon the shores, or are left dry by the tides, where they soon die from 
exposure to the atmosphere, or during the cold winter weather are in¬ 
stantly destroyed by freezing. Ipswich Bay, the most extensive spawning 
ground in the locality, is especially unfortunate in this particular, for the 
heavy storms from the north and east sweep with unbroken force across 
its surface, and each breaker as it rolls in upon the beach must carry with 
it many millions of eggs. 
<f But such impregnated eggs as escape destruction upon the shores are 
subjected to the ravages of the myriads of hungry animals living about 
the rocks and coves. One day in January we placed a jelly-fish or medusid, 
having a diameter of but one and a half inches, into a tray of eggs in the 
hatching-room, and in less than five minutes it had fastened seventy eggs 
to its tentacles, loading some of them so heavily that they were severed 
from the body by the weight or resistance of the eggs as they were dragged 
through the water. ’ ’ 
In addition to his other observations, Mr. Earll computed the number 
of eggs in Codfish of different sizes. The results of his observations are 
shown in the following tables : 
Table showing the number of eggs in Codfish of different sizes : 
Number. 
Length of fish. 
Weight of fish. 
Weight of ova¬ 
ries. 
Estimated weight 
of ovary walls. 
Net weight of 
eggs. 
Number of troy 
grains weighed 
out. 
Number of eggs 
in the portion 
weighed out. 
Number of eggs 
to the grain. 
Total number of 
eggs in fish. 
Ft. in. 
Lbs. 
Lbs.oz. 
Oz. 
Lbs.oz. 
I. 
7°-75 
8 8 
6 
8 2 
7 
OO 
O 
M 
H 
1 < 
1 O). 
70-75 
8 8 
6 
8 2 
7 
m 3 2 
> 160 
9,100,000 
2. 
4 2% 
5 i 
7 2 
5 
8 13 
6 
IU 3 1 
^ 188.s 
8,988,094 
3 . 
3 3 
3 ° 
2 8^ 
2 K 
2 6 
6 
i, 34 i 
023.6 
3,715,687 
4 . 
3 5 
27 
2 9 yk 
2% 
2 6 
7 
1,680 
240 
4,095,000 
5 . 
3 4 % 
22 K 
2 2^3 
2 
2 0% 
6 
1,368 
228 
3,229.388 
6. 
3 3 
21 
1 15% 
i3 A 
I 14 
6 
i , 2 49 
208.17 
2 , 73 2 , 2 3 7 
It is interesting to compare these with the observations made during the 
last century, references to which may be found in all the standard works 
on natural history. Leuwenhoek is s<aid to have found in a Cod of mid¬ 
dling size 384,000 eggs. Harmer found, in one weighing eighteen or 
twenty pounds, between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 eggs. It was examined 
