their young, for they bring forth their young alive, they again ascend the stream, at different times, as opportunity offers, or as the season is favourable or tempestuous. Their passage begins usually about the end of January, and continues till towards the end of May, when they are taken in the river Arno, in Italy, by millions, and so small, that a thousand of them go to a pound. There is nothing more certain than that they descend into our own rivers, after floods, in great abundance; and are thus caught in nets to very great advantage. They are pos sessed, also, of a power of climbing over any obstacle; for by applying their slimy bodies to the surface of the object they desire to surmount, they can thus creep up locks, weirs, and every thing that would prevent their ascending the current of the stream.

But the length of the voyage performed by these fishes, is short, if compared to what is annually undertaken by some tribes, that constantly reside in the ocean. These are known to take a course of three or four thousand miles in a season; serving for prey to whales, sharks, and the numerous flocks of water-fowl, that regularly wait to intereept their progress. may be called fish of passage, and bear a strong analogy to birds of passage, both from their social disposition, and the immensity of their num bers. Of this kind are the cod, the haddock, the whiting, the mackarel, the tunny, the her

These

ring, and the pilchard. Other fish live in our neighbourhood, and reside on our coasts all the year round; or keep in the depths of the ocean, and are but seldom seen: but these, at stated seasons, visit their accustomed haunts with regular certainty, generally returning the same week in the succeeding year, and often the same day.

The stated returns, and the regular progress of these fish of passage, is one of the most extraordinary circumstances in all the history of

nature.

Of all migrating fish, the herring and the pilchard take the most adventurous voyages. Herrings are found in the greatest abundance in the highest northern latitudes. In those inaccessible seas, that are covered with ice for a great part of the year, the herring and pilchard find a quiet and sure retreat from all their numerous enemies thither, neither man, nor their still more destructive enemy, the fin fish, or the cachalot, dares to pursue them. The quantity of insect food which those seas supply, is very great; whence, in that remote situation, defended by the icy rigour of the climate, they live at ease, and multiply beyond expression. From this most desirable retreat, Anderson supposes, they would never depart, but that their numbers render it necessary for them to migrate; and, as is the case with bees, when want of food has driven them from the hive, they are com pelled to seek for other retreats.

For this reason, the great colony is seen to set out from the icy sea about the middle of winter; composed of numbers, that if all the men in the world were to be loaded with herrings, they would not carry the thousandth part away. But they no sooner leave their retreats, than millions of enemies appear to thin their squadrons. The fin-fish and the cachalot swallow barrels at a yawn; the porpoise, the grampus, the shark, and the whole numerous tribe of dog-fish, find them an easy prey, and desist from making war upon each other: but still more, the unnumbered flocks of sea-fowl that inhabit the northern parts of the earth, watch the outset of their dangerous migration, and spread extensive ruin.

In this difficulty, the defenceless fish find no other safety, but by crouding closer together, and leaving to the outmost bands the danger of being first devoured; thus, like sheep when frighted, that always run together in a body, and each finding some protection in being but one of many that are equally liable to invasion, they are seen to separate into shoals, one body of which moves to the west, and pours down along the coasts of America, as far south as Carolina, and but seldom farther. In Chesapeak Bay, the annual inundation of these fish is so great, that they cover the shores in such quantities as to become a nuisance. Those that keep more to the east, and come down towards Eu

rope, endeavour to save themselves from their merciless pursuers, by approaching the first shore they can find ; and that which first offers in their descent, is the coast of Iceland, in the beginning of March. Upon their arrival on that coast, their great body which has already suffered considerable diminutions, is nevertheless of amazing extent, depth, and closeness, covering an extent of shore as large as the Island itself. The whole water seems alive and is seen so black with them to a great distance, that the number seems inexhaustible. There the porpoise and the shark continue their depredations; and the birds devour what quantities they please. By these enemies, the herrings are cooped up into so close a body, that a shovel, or any hollow vessel put into the water, takes them up without farther trouble.

That body which comes upon our coasts, begins to appear off the Shetland Isles in April. These are the forerunners of the grand shoal, which descends in June; whilst its arrival is easily announced, by the number of its greedy attendants, the gannet, the gull, the shark, and the porpoise. When the main body is arrived, its breadth and depth is such, as to alter the very appearance of the ocean. It is divided into distinct columns, of five or six miles in length, and three or four broad; while the water before them, curls up, as if forced out of its bed. Sometimes they sink for the space of ten or fifteen

minutes, then rise again to the surface; and, in bright weather, reflect a variety of splendid colours, like a field bespangled with purple, gold, and azure. The fishermen are ready prepared, and with their nets made for the occasion, they take sometimes above two thousand barrels at a single draught.

From the Shetland Isles, where this great shoal divides, another body makes off for the northern coasts of this country, where they meet with a second necessity of dividing. The one takes to the Atlantic, where it is soon lost in that extensive ocean; the other passes into the Irish sea, and furnishes a very considerable cap

ture to the natives.

In this manner the herrings, expelled from their native seas, seek those bays and shores where they can find food, and the best defence against their unmerciful pursuers of the deep. In general, the most inhabited shores are the places where the larger animals of the deep are least fond of pursuing; and these are chosen by the herring as an asylum from greater dangers. Thus, along the coasts of Norway, the German shores, and the northern shores of France, these animals are found punctual in their visitations. In these different places, they produce their young, which, when come to some degree of maturity, attend the general motions. After the destruction of such numbers, the quantity that attempts to return is but small; and Anderson doubts whether they ever return.