Such eggs as are besprinkled with the milt grow, in a day or
thereabouts, whiter and larger, and in a little while afterwards the
fish's eyes become visible for these organs in all fishes, as for that
matter in all other animals, are early conspicuous and seem
disproportionately big. But such eggs as the milt fails to touch
remain, as with marine fishes, useless and infertile. From the fertile
eggs, as the little fish grow, a kind of sheath detaches itself;
this is a membrane that envelops the egg and the young fish. When
the milt has mingled with the eggs, the resulting product becomes very
sticky or viscous, and adheres to the roots of trees or wherever it
may have been laid. The male keeps on guard at the principal
spawning-place, and the female after spawning goes away.
In the case of the sheat-fish the growth from the egg is
exceptionally slow, and, in consequence, the male has to keep watch
for forty or fifty days to prevent the-spawn being devoured by such
little fishes as chance to come by. Next in point of slowness is the
generation of the carp. As with fishes in general, so even with these,
the spawn thus protected disappears and gets lost rapidly.
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