STUDY VI. 317 



1 prefume, conformably to an obfervation of Fa- 

 ther Lambertiy a miffionary in Mingrelia, that thefe 

 fifhes accompliOi the circuit of Europe by going 

 up the Mediterranean, and that the extreme boun- 

 dary of their emigration is the extremity of the 

 Black Sea ; and this is the more probable, that 

 the pilchers, which take their departure from the 

 fame places, follow the fame track, as is proved by 

 the copious fiflieries of them carried on along the 

 coafts of Provence and Italy. " Many herrings,'* 

 fays Father Lamberti*, *' are fometimes feen in 

 " the Black Sea ; and in the years when this hap- 

 *' pens, the inhabitants of the adjacent countries 

 *' draw a flattering prognoftic of a plentiful ftur- 

 " geon-fifliing feafon ; and they deduce the oppo- 

 *' fite conclufion from the non-appearance of her- 

 ** rings. There was feen in 1642 a quantity fo 

 " prodigious of them, that the Sea having thrown 

 " them on the fhallows which feparate Trebifond 

 " from the country of the Abcafles, the whole was 

 " covered and furrounded with a bank of herrings, 

 " which was, at leaft, three hand-breadths high. 

 " The people of the country were under dreadful 

 " apprehenfions, that the air would be poifoned 

 " by the corruption of thefe fiflies ; but they were 

 " prefently followed by enormous flocks of crows 

 " and rooks, which eat up the herrings, and cured 



* Account of Mingrelia, Thevenot's CoUeélion. 



«' the 



