When I state that the codfish yields its eggs in millions, and that a herring of six or seven ounces in weight is provided with about thirty thousand ova, it will at once be seen that the multiplying power of all kinds of fish is enormous; but then the drain on fish life, consequent on the _habitat_ of these animals, is immense, or at least of corresponding magnitude. Although there may be thirty thousand eggs in a herring, the reader must bear in mind that if these be not vivified by the milt of the male fish, they just rot away in the sea, and never become of any value, except perhaps as food to some minor monster of the deep. Millions upon millions of the eggs that are emitted by the cod or the herring never come to life at all—many of them from the want of the fructifying power, and others from being devoured by enemies. Then, again, of those eggs that are so fortunate as to be ripened, it is pretty certain, I think, from minute and careful inquiry, that fully ninety per cent of the young fish perish before they are six months old. Were only half of the eggs to come to life, and but one moiety of the young fish to live, the sea would so abound with animal life that it would soon be impossible for a boat to move in its waters. But we can never hope to realise such a sight; and when it is considered that a single shoal of herrings consists of millions and millions of individual fish, and takes up a space in the sea far more than that occupied by the parks of London, and yet gives no impediment to navigation, my readers will see the magnitude of our fish supplies; but, from the destruction of fish life by natural causes, the breeding supply is kept down to an amount that cannot, in my opinion, be very far from the point of extermination; and hence I am prepared to argue the urgent necessity of regulation, continued statistical inquiry, and the adoption of fish-culture as an adjunct to the natural supplies.