THE COMMON HERRING. 



445 



OF THE HERRING TRIBE. 



These fish inhabit the depths of the ocean. They feed on mol- 

 Itiscte, and various kinds of small crustaceous animals, and shell-fish. 

 Three of the species, the Common Ilerring, the Shad, and the An 

 ch«)vy, were known to the ancients, and, as articles of food, were held 

 by them in considerable esteem. It is not known that any of these 

 fish are natives of fresh waters. Most of the species are migratory 

 and generally in immense shoals: and most, if not all of them, are 

 excellent food. 



THE COMMON HERRING. 



Herrings are found in the greatest abundance in the high northern 

 latitudes. In those inaccessible seas that are covered with ice for a 



THE HERRINO. 



great part of the year, they find a quiet and sure retreat from all their 

 numerous enemies. The quantity of food which those seas supply is 

 immensely great. 



Thus remotely situated, and defended by the icy rigor of the cli* 

 mate, they live at ease, and muliiply beyond expression, issumg iiicuoe 

 in such shoals, that, were all the men in the world to be loaded with 

 Herrings, they could not carry off the thousandth part of them. Their 

 enemies, however, are extremely numerous. All the monsters of the 

 deep find them an easy prey ; and, in addition to these, th ^immense 

 flocks of sea-fowl that inhabit the polar regions, watch their outset, 

 and spread devastation on all sides. 



In their outset, this immense swarm of living creatures is divided 

 into distinct colunins, each five or six miles in length, and thiee or 

 four in breadth, and in their jtrogress they even make the water 

 ripple before them. 



In the month of June they are found about the Shetland islands, 

 whence they proceed to the Orkneys, and, then dividing, they surround 

 the islands of great Britain and Ireland, and unite again, ofl'the Land'a 

 End, in the British Channel, in September, f'rom this part of the 

 ocean the great united body steers south-west, and is not found any 

 more on that side, or in the Atlantic, until the same time the ensuing 

 year, but next appear off the American coasts. They arrive in 



