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above six times bigger than the largest egg he had ever noticed in a Smelt*.

* The Eggs in the Roe, and Animalcules in the Milt of Fishes of one year old, are as large as in those of the same Species of twenty years old.

VOL. II.

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* PETIT is said to have found in a Carp 342,144 Eggs.

† 148,000 Ova are said to have been taken from a Pike caught in the Rhine, which diđ not weigh above Nine pounds.

No. 1. of the Tench certainly had a much larger number of Eggs; but being extremely distended with Spawn, and unluckily let fall before it was brought to Mr. H., the enveloping skin in which the Eggs were contained, was broke, which made it difficult to determine some circumstances relating to this fish; it had however the number of Eggs here set down, at the lowest way of reckoning, and it is believed, many thousands more.

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• In a Cod Fish of middling size Leuwenhoeck affirms there were 9,384,000 Eggs. A Cod fish was lately sold in Workington Market, Cumberland, for One Shilling: it weighed 15lbs, and measured two feet nine inches in length, and seven inches in breadth. The Roe weighed 2lbs. 10oz.: One grain of which contained 820 Seeds, or Eggs; the whole, therefore, might contain 3,901,440 Seeds. From such a trifle as this may be observed the prodigious Value of the Fisheries to a Commercial Nation. Thus, supposing that each of the above Eggs should have arrived at the same perfection and size of the Mother fish, its produce would weigh 26,123 Tons, and consequently would load 261 Sail of Ships, each of One hundred Tons burthen. If each fish was brought to Market and sold for a Shilling, this would net a clear sum to the Nation of L.195,000. But this Increase is trifling compared to that of the Sturgeon, which according to LEUWENHOECK (as before noticed) amounts to one hundred and fifty thousand Millions of Eggs from a single Fish.

+ Four Millions and Ninety-six thousand Eggs were computed in the Roe of a Crab, each of which received its Nourishment by a Rope from the Crab's Body.

Mr. H. concludes with saying, that he has taken no notice of several fractions in the number of Eggs contained in a grain, in many cases, choosing rather to fall below than exceed the Truth. That in every fish mentioned in the Table, he has been scrupulously exact in all particulars, excepting the Weight of the fish in the second column, where the utmost nicety was not necessary; some few might vary a trifle more or less, but the weights of much the greater part were accurately set down.

From this investigation of the Produce of fishes, we return to the consideration of their Senses as compared with those of other Animals. Hitherto fishes have been examined with regard to their external Conformation; and in their Organization, and in the number of their enjoyments, they have been found inferior to terrestrial animals; they are now to be contemplated in a more favourable point of view, and that is, in the lengthened duration of that humble Existence, which Nature has assigned them; their Longevity is far superior to that of other creatures, and there is reason to credit that they are, in a great measure, exempted from Diseases. Wherever there is Existence, there is some degree of Felicity; there are Enjoyments suited to the different powers of feeling; and Earth, and Air, and Water, are by the great Father of all, with magnificent liberality, made to teem with Life and Happiness.

Most of the disorders incident to Mankind arise from the changes of the Atmosphere, but fishes reside in an Element but little subject to Alteration;

theirs is an uniform existence, their movements are without effort, and their life without labour; their Bones also, which are united by Cartilages, admit of indefinite extension, and allow the conjecture, that the intention of Nature was neither to fix the duration of their Lives, nor the expansion of their Size, to such narrow limits as that of terrestrial creatures. Instead of suffering from the rigidity of Age, which is the cause of natural decay in land animals, their bodies still continue increasing with fresh supplies; and as the body grows, the Conduits of life furnish their stores in greater abundance. How long a fish that seems to have scarce any bounds put to its growth, continues to live, is not ascertained; the date prescribed as the Age of Man, would not perhaps be sufficient to measure the life of the smallest. In the royal Ponds at Marli, in France, there are some fishes that have been preserved tame since the time, it is said, of FRANCIS the First, and which have been individually known to the persons who have succeeded to the charge of them, ever since that period. These have now attained a Size much beyond the common Bulk of fishes of the same kind; and although there are certain peculiarities distinguishing them from younger fishes, yet they evince no Symptoms of that decrepitude and disease, which inevitably accompany a Life protracted much beyond the usual space among Quadrupeds. It is well known, likewise, that fishermen sometimes catch an individual fish of more than double the weight of what is deemed a full sized fish of that Species, especially in those situations where they

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