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the Herrings caught in the fucceeding year, (for if it were not fo, 

 there wovild certainly be found in the Ihoal Ibme Herrings much 

 larger than others, as we may obferve in all kinds of fifli which have 

 fcales) ; we may from thence draw this conclufion, that when Her- 

 rings have depofited their fpawn, they do immediately, or in a very 

 lliort time afterwards, quit thefe feas, and never return thither. 



About twenty years ago, I heard a llory of an uncommon large 

 Herring, which was to be feen in our town, and, for the novelty of 

 the thing, was given a prefent to a company of great perfonages at a 

 public dinner. This Herring, I think, very probably had wandered 

 from the flioal, or had by fome means been detained in our fea. 



If then, we obferve that in the fea adjoining to us, no Herrings are 

 found which are more than a year old, and that they then entirely 

 quit our coafls, and none of them are caught the following year; 

 who can allign any other reafon for this, than that Herrings, when 

 grown large, require more food for their growth and fullenance than 

 thiey can get in our feas, and therefore they migrate, or refort to 

 thofe places where they find a greater or more folid fupply of food. 



To conclude, the fecrets of Nature, refpefting filhes in the fea, as 

 well in regard to their resorting to certain places, as in their de- 

 parture from thence, cannot be investigated with any precifion : for 

 inftance, what fhall we fay of the filh called the Shad, (in Dutch 

 ElftJ, for thofe fifli, when the time of their propagation is at hand, 

 are found in our rivers ; but when that time is pall quit the rivers, 

 nor are ever afterwards, as far as I have been able to learn, caught in 

 the fea. 



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