BANK NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 27

BANK NOTES.

Otago Heads to thb Fobb. — Two strange fish were netted at the Heads ■ and sent up to Mr J. L. Gillies, who has forwarded them to Professor Parker. They are a , peouliar sort of flying fish, in shape and size something like a trevalli, with the wings set on 1 underneath and folding into a recess in the ( belly. Salmon trout are said to be plentiful . about the Heads. \ Whioh is the Most Pbohfio Fish?— The cod, whioh is estimated to yield 45,000,000 • eggs eaob season. As many as eight, nine, and even nine and a-half million eggs have been found in tbe roe of a single cod. An eel ia said to have been caught in Scotland recently 1 whioh was 32in long and weighed about 21b. The ovary was about 12in long as it lay in the fish, but when opened out it was nearly 30in in ' length, and it was calculated that this contained ' upwards of 10,000,000 eggs, rivalling, if riot ' surpassing, the ood in this respeot. This, however, would appear to have been &n exceptional ■ find, and it is generally admitted that the ood > is more prolific than any other fish. Though ' not equalling the ood, many kinds of fish are ' exceedingly prolific. More than 36,000 eggt have been counted in a herring, 38,000 in a smelt, 1,000,000 in a sole, 1.120,000 in a roach, 3,000,000 in a sturgeon, 342,000 in a carp, 383,000 in a tenoh, 546,000 in a mackerel, 992,000 in a perch, and 1,357,000 in a flounder, The oyster iB also very prolific. It has been ascertained by recent observation that in the liquor of their shells small oysters oan be seen by aid of the microscope— l2o in the Bpaoe of an inch, covered with shells, and swimming aotively about. A herring weighing 6oe or 7oz is provided with about 30,000 eggs. After making all reasonable allowances for the destruction of eggs and the young, ie has been estimated that in three years a single pair of herrings would produoe 154,000,000. Buff on calculated that, if a pair of herrings oould be ■ left to breed and multiply undisturbed for a petiod of 20 years, they would yield an amount of fish equal in bulk to the globe. The Bibhop's Kbply.— Bishop Hooker is fond of fishing. After he had had a few dayß ' of this sport in Scotland, a certain journal made some remark that it was highly improper for a man like him to join in suoh sport. A local paper likewise contained something of the same kind, whioh, being shown to him, he sat down ona day and wrote the following lines : — If bishops when they cast their lines, From care and duties freed, Must lose their credit as divines, Their lines are bard indeed. - Ye olergy count It not a crime In our good overlooker, If he should prove in this our time A most judicious Hooker. 'Twere better that the rod be plied To catch the fish of Spey, Than kept In pickle to be tried On clerks who disobey. But if 'twere best, as seems to you, Such pastime to resign , Take the same oourse as he, and to His lordship drop a lint.