Pelagic Fish-Nest

Abstract

SEEING an extract from NATURE with reference to the nest of the pelagic fish, allow me to inform you of the discovery of what I presume to be a similar nest in lat. 25° N., long. 65° W., whilst on a voyage between Buenos Ayres and New York last January. I had improvised a drag-net out of a barrel hoop and a biscuit bag, to fish up for examination the straw-coloured floating gulf-weed, which covered the sea in long lines and patches between 20° and 32°N. lat.; and one day there came up in the net amass of weed compactly woven by strong, white, silky fibres into a round ball of about ten inches in circumference. The surface of this ball was covered with a network of these fibres, to which large numbers of glassy eggs, about the size of partridge shot, were attached. The eggs were transparent, and their cases very tough. The only living inhabitants of the ball were one or two small shrimps and a small crab, who was carrying his own particular egg-sac.