The common objects of the sea shore - including hints for an aquarium (1860) (14742897446)

Identifier: commonobjectsofs00wood (find matches)

Title: The common objects of the sea shore : including hints for an aquarium

Year: 1860 (1860s)

Authors: Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889 Sowerby, G. B. (George Brettingham), 1812-1884

Subjects: Marine animals Marine plants Aquariums

Publisher: London : Routledge, Warne & Routledge

Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System

Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

Text Appearing Before Image:

hromatic lenses and a series of air-pumps,contained in the structure of one creature belongingto the lower orders of the animal kingdom. Manyother analogies exist, but space suffices not for themhere. The eggs of many fish are small and globular, beinggenerally known under the name of spawn. Thehard-roe of a herring furnishes a good type of thisclass of eggs. These, however, are the eggs of fishthat are destined to be produced in countless myriads,and to serve as food for the other inhabitants of thedeep, as well as for man. Uncounted thousands ofthese eggs perish before their maturity, being devouredby other fish which watch for them; and even when theyoung fry are born, comparatively few of them escapedestruction. In order to compensate for such a loss ofanimal, the number of eggs is proportionably increased;one single cod-fish having been known to cast forth EGGS OF PISH. 57 into the waves, in one single season, nine millions ofeggs—equalling eight times the population of London,

Text Appearing After Image:

THE COD-FISH. But the destroying fish are not multiplied to suchan extent, or the ocean would for a season teem withbattles, and after a time be utterly depopulated. Theeggs of such a creature as a shark, for example, aresingly committed to the ocean; and in order to preventthem from being carried about at the mercy of thewaves, or thrown to perish on the shore, they are of amost singular form. An egg of one of our Britishsharks, called the Dog-fish, is represented on plateh, fig- 4. The egg is of a softish, horn-like consistency, so thatit is not liable to be broken, or easily to be penetrated.The general shape of the egg has been aptly comparedto a pillow-case, with strings tied to the corners; the 58 mermaids purses. enclosed pillow being the young shark. The long,curling, tendrilous appendages speedily affix themselvesto sea-weeds, or other appropriate substances, and fromtheir form and consistence anchor the egg firmly. In

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1860

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