STUDY VI. 3^3 



oyfter, are there of a prodigious fize, and excellent 

 to eat. The lempit, in like manner, grows there to 

 a prodigious magnitude. There muft be, con- 

 tinues he, on thefe (hores, an infinite number of 

 fifhes to fupport the fea-calves, the pinguins, and 

 the other fowls, which Hve folely on fi(h, and 

 which are all equally fat, though their number is 

 beyond computation. They one day killed four 

 hundred fea-lions, in the fpace of half an hour. 

 Of thefe fome were eighteen feet long. Thofe 

 which are only fourteen fwarm by thoufands. 

 Their flelh is as tender and as white as lamb, and 

 excellent food when frelli, but ftill better when it 

 has been fome time in fait. On which I muft make 

 this obfervation, that the fifli of cold countries 

 only take in fait cafily, and retain, in that ftate, 

 part of their flavour. It feems as if Nature in- 

 tended thus to communicate to all the Nations of 

 the Globe the abundance of the fifheries which 

 ilîue from the frigid Zones. 



The weflern coaft of America, in that fame La- 

 titude, is not lefs amply fupplied with fifh. "Along 

 " the whole fea-coaft," fays the Peruvian Garcil- 

 lajo de la Vega *, *' from Aréquipa to Tarapaca, a 

 " track of more than two hundred leagues in 

 ** length, they employ no other manure to dung 



* Hiftory of the Incas, book V. chap. iii. 



Y 2 " the 



