same.

In

water, and that it floated at the top in the form of transparent globules, an observation which has been proved by corroborative evidence to have been perfectly correct. 1888, an Italian naturalist at Naples, described a floating ovum, which he believed to belong to the sardine, and which he obtained from the sea. At Plymouth I have taken similar eggs from the sea, and have compared them with ripe eggs squeezed from the pilchard, and shown that they are the The spawning pilchards are caught in small numbers in the mackerel nets in June and July, at a considerable distance from the coast, but artificial fertilization has never yet been carried out. I have not obtained ripe males and ripe females at the same time. It is not easy to determine definite limits for the spawning period. I have received ripe specimens of the fish at various times, and have obtained the developing eggs from the sea at various times, and judging from these data, I conclude that the spawning period lasts from the end of May to the end of October.

The young larval pilchards are to be caught with a fine meshed net in July: these are different from the adult, being very slender and quite transparent. Gradually they assume the silvery livery of the adult, and pass into what Devonshire fishermen call britt, the stage corresponding to whitebait, similar to the adult except that they are only 1 to 3 inches long. At this stage they are largely devoured by mackerel in November, and are found in mackerels' stomachs.

inches

There is a good evidence for believing that the pilchard of one year old is not adult, but varies from 5 to 6 in length, and in weight from half an ounce to an ounce, while adult pilchards are 8 to 9 or 10 inches long and weigh 3 to 5 oz. In November, 1891, we obtained in small meshed nets a large number of such small pilchards, and it is probable that they could be caught in summer, from May to November. But small-meshed drift nets are not used on the Devonshire or Cornish coasts, and these fish are therefore net taken. Off the French coast from Brest south to La Rochelle, the regular sardine fishery is carried on for the capture of such young pilchards. The adult pilchard is however caught on the French coast in autumn and winter as on the Cornish coast, and there is no doubt whatever that the French sardine as preserved in tins is the young of the pilchard.

The pilchard begins to breed when it is two years old, though probably only a proportion of individuals breed at this age, many not reaching sexual maturity until the end of their third year.

The pilchard like other fishes similar in habits, such as the herring and mackerel, used to be considered a migratory fish, and it is still so considered by fishermen. I do not wish to say that it is not migratory, but naturalists are now able to form a different conception of the habits of such fish, best expressed by saying they are pelagic. They feed in midwater on minute animals, and are always moving about in shoals. But their range is probably limited: the pilchard of the Cornish coast may wander to the French coast, but it probably does not reach the Spanish coast, and the sardine of the Mediterranean is certainly a separate race; nor does the pilchard extend to true oceanic waters, beyond the 100 fm. line.

The family Pleuronectidae is as important to our seafisheries as that of the Clupeidae, and I will just touch upon a few of the points which have recently been made out concerning this family. It is quite an old story now, that the eggs of all the species are pelagic. The eggs of the sole were first identified first identified with complete certainty at Plymouth. They have been artificially fertilized with success several times at our Laboratory in small numbers, but an unexpected difficulty was found to prevent the performance of that operation on a large scale, namely, the extremely small size of the testes, and the impossibility of getting a large supply of milt from the male fish. The young of the flat-fishes when first hatched are transparent and symmetrical, and when they are a few weeks old their metamorphosis commences, one eye passing round to the opposite side of the body and the blind side becoming colourless. When this change commences in the sole, flounder, plaice, dab, and merrysole, the little fish are only about half an inch long, and they soon cease to swim at the surface. But the young turbot and brill are very different; they have an air-bladder during the period of transition, and swim at the very surface of the sea, often being washed into harbours or docks with the tide. They also reach a considerable size before their metamorphosis is complete, some specimens in this condition being as much as 1 inches long. After this stage the air-bladder entirely disappears.

There are interesting differences in the distribution of young flat fishes in the first year of their age, after they have begun to live on the sea-bottom like their parents, differences which do not completely correspond to those in the distribution of the adult fish. Thus young flounders, plaice, soles, turbot, and brill, are all found in shallow water, in summer 2 H

VOL. XXIV.

and autumn. To some extent they ascend estuaries; this is particularly true of the flounder, dab, and plaice. On the other hand the young of the thick-back, Solea variegata has been found only in deep water, over 20 fathoms. The young of the merrysole, Pleuronectes microcephalus, though it is so common in the adult condition, I have never found at all under 6 inches in length. Although the plaice and merrysole are two species of the same genus, it would seem that the young of the latter are reared in deep water beyond the 30 fathom line, while those of the plaice are found in abundance in water from two to ten fathoms. The young of another species again, Pleuronectes limanda, the dab, are found at all depths, from shallow water in estuaries and in Plymouth Sound, up to 30 or 40 fathoms.

Until the last two or three years practically nothing was known concerning the rate of growth of flat-fishes. I have made a number of observations on various species in connection with this question, both on specimens collected at sea, and specimens reared from the larval condition in the aquarium. The most complete experiment in rearing was made with flounders. I have found that both in the natural condition and in confinement the rate of growth is extraordinarily variable in different individuals, even allowing somewhat for the length of the spawning period, which extends over about three months. Thus specimens of the flounder, obtained on May 7th, 1890, were little more or less than half an inch; measured on April 4th, 1891, although kept during the year in the same tank, they varied from 16 to 60 inches in length. Specimens are taken at sea during the spawning period, none of which can therefore be less than a year old, which show a similar variation in size. At two years of age some of my captive flounders became sexually mature, and eggs and milt were obtained from them. But the ripe specimens were only 19 per cent. of the whole number, and the rest probably would become mature in the following year, when three years old. It may be that the course of events in specimens in the free state in the sea is different, but observations on specimens taken at sea tend to show that it is the same. The ripe females reared in captivity varied in size from 84 to 10.5 in., the males from 64 to 92 inches, and these sizes correspond closely with that of the smallest mature specimens taken at The conclusion is that flat-fishes when they begin to breed are two or three years old, and that when they reach the size of large specimens of their species they are four or

sea.

five years old. It is a curious fact that it has been established in the case of the salmon that some breed for the first time when two years old, the majority not till they are three years of age. There is some evidence that other fishes of different kinds, such as herring, pilchard, mackerel, and even the sprat, follow the same law of growth.

The life-history of the conger has also been followed at the Plymouth Aquarium. It has been definitely established that all the large conger taken for the market, all the conger over three feet in length, are female, the male never exceeding two feet nine inches. No sexually ripe females are ever caught at sea, nor ripe males. But there are slight sexual differences by which the males can be distinguished, and when kept in the aquarium they ultimately become ripe, and healthy milt can be squeezed from them. When ripe these males cease to feed, and they never begin to feed again, but after living for months in the ripe condition, ultimately waste away and die. The females, on the other hand, never become ripe in captivity: they feed voraciously for a time, and grow rapidly, but ultimately, usually when five or six feet in length, they cease to feed, and live for six months or more without eating, and at last die. When an examination is made of specimens that have died in this way, they are found to be in a curious condition. The ovaries are enormously distended with ova, small white opaque ova, which seem almost, but not quite, ripe. The number of the eggs calculated is six or seven millions, and they constitute about th of the total weight of the fish. But there are other peculiarities in such conger. It is found that all the teeth have disappeared, and almost all the the lime has gone from the bones. The bones are quite soft and gelatinous, like cartilage, and can be cut with a knife almost like cheese. As these changes have been observed to occur regularly in several specimens, they cannot be accidental, but are, in all probability, a normal process in ripening conger. The inference which I draw is that the female conger in the natural state is extremely feeble when ripe, and dies as soon as the eggs are shed. The fact that neither the male nor the female feeds when the sexual organs are maturing explains why ripe specimens are never caught. The eggs after fertilization have not yet been identified. There is some reason to suppose they are pelagic, but no pelagic egg which could belong to the conger has been noticed off the Devon or Cornish coasts.

A FEW SHEAVES OF DEVON BIBLIOGRAPHY.

GLEANED BY JOHN INGLE DREDGE.

(Read at Plymouth, July, 1892.)

REFERENCES.-B.M., British Museum Library; Bod., The Bodleian Library: Dr. W.'s Lib., Dr. D. Williams's Library; J. I. D., The Writer's Library; [pp. iv.] so inclosed denotes that those pages are unnumbered.

The title of any book not yet actually examined is given within square-headed brackets thus [......], with the authority.

The Third Sheaf.

BARLOW (JOHN).

He was born in Cheshire; matriculated at Oxford from Hart Hall 31 Oct. 1600, as " pleb. fil.," aged 19; admitted B.A. 9 July 1608; Wood says, "being then in orders and a curate. Afterwards, upon an invitation, he was made minister of Plymouth." Henry Wallis was the vicar of St. Andrew's from 1603 to his death in 1634; therefore Barlow's post must have been that of "the lecturer." Samuel Hieron, of Modbury, was the means of introducing our divine to Devon. His tracts shew that he was still here in 1619. From the IXth Report of the Historical MSS. Commission we learn that Mathias Nichols held the Plymouth Lectureship on the 28th of August, 1620. We now find Barlow at Halifax. Mr. Hunter, in his Life of Oliver Heywood, has some remarks, from Heywood's notes, on the Halifax lectures, ending thus :"It's said this exercise was maintained in Dr. Favour's days, who was a great friend to Non-Conformists, maintained two famous men as lecturers at Halifax, whom he shrouded under his authority and interest with the bishop, namely, Mr. Boys, banished out of Kent for his Non-Conformity, a choice man, very laborious in the work of the Lord, catechized all the poor, expounded to them in the church one day in the week, gave them money; I have his catechism which he taught them; and Mr. Barlow, that writ upon Timothy, a choice