THE CLUPEA HARENGIS. 235 



Thus surrounded by foes, which they can neither avoid 

 nor repel, these helpless emigrants find no other safety but 

 in crowding" close together, and leaving their extreme ranks 

 to be first destroyed. However, they soon separate into 

 shoals, one body of which moves westward, and pours down 

 along- the coasts of America, as far as Carolina. In Chesa- 

 peake Bay, the annual inundation of these fishes is so 

 great that they cover the shores in such vast quantities as 

 to become almost a nuisance. Those which hold more to 

 the eastward, and direct their course for Europe, endeavour 

 to save themselves from their unrelenting pursuers by ap- 

 proaching the first shore they can find; and accordingly 

 make their descent upon Ireland about the commencement 

 of March. When they arrive on that coast their phalanx, 

 though it has suffered considerable diminutions, is neverthe- 

 less of amazing extent, depth, and closeness, covering a 

 space as large as the island itself; the whole element seems 

 as it were alive, and the numbers appear inexhaustible. 



The shoal that visits the British coasts begins to appear 

 off the Shetland Isles in the month of April. This is the 

 forerunner of the grand shoal which descends in June, 

 whose appearance is announced by the numbers of its vora- 

 cious attendants, the gannet, the shark, and the porpoise. 

 When the main body arrives, 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 in breadth ; while the water curls up as the herrings 

 advance, appearing as if forced from its bed. Sometimes 

 they sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, then rising 

 again to the surface, and in bright weather reflecting a 

 variety of the most splendid colours, like a field bespangled 

 with azure, gold, and purple. 



From the Shetland Isles, where this great army divides, 

 one body moves off to the western coasts of Ireland, where 

 it meets with a necessity of dividing a second time : one 

 party, taking to the Atlantic, is soon lost in that extensive 



