3l6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



" them in great numbers, and which dart their 

 ** water-fpouts into the air, give to the Sea, at a 

 *' diftance, the appearance of being covered over 

 " with fmoking chimnies. The herrings, in order 

 " to elude the purfuir, throw themfelves clofe in- 

 ** fhore into every Httle bay and creek, where the 

 *^ water, before tranquil, forms confiderable fwel- 

 " lings and furges, wherever they croud to make 

 ** their efcape. They branch off in fuch quan- 

 *' tities, that you may take them out in bafkets- 

 '* full, and the country people can even catch 

 " them by the hand." After all, however, that 

 the united efforts of all thefe fiOiers can effeét, 

 hardly any impreffion is made on their great gene- 

 ral column, which coafts along Germany, France, 

 Spain, and flretches as far as the Straits of Gibral- 

 tar; devoured, the whole length of their paffage, 

 by an innumerable multitude of other fifhes, and 

 fea-fowls, which follow them night and day, till 

 the column is loft on the fhores of Africa, or re- 

 turns, as other Authors tells us, to the Climates 

 of the North. 



For my own part, I no more believe that her- 

 rings return to the Seas from which they came, 

 than that fruits re-afcend the trees from which they 

 have once dropped. Nature is fo magnificent in the 

 entertainments which (he provides for Man, that Ihe 

 never ferves up the fame diihes a fécond time. 



I prefumc 



