MORRHUA. 195 



mountain known as the Grand Banks, to feed upon 

 the crustaceous and molluscous animals abun- 

 dant in such situations. Hither, also, fleets of fish- 

 ermen regularly adventure, sure of winning a rich 

 freight in return for their toils and exposure, and 

 of conveying plenty and profit to their homes and 

 employers. 



" Myriads of cod are thus yearly destroyed by 

 human diligence; myriads of millions, in the egg 

 state, are prevented from coming into existence, 

 not only by the fishermen, who take the parents 

 before they have spawned, but by hosts of raven- 

 ous fishes, and an immense concourse of other ani- 

 mals, which attend upon their migrations to feed 

 upon their spawn : yet, in despite of the unceasing 

 activity of all these destructive causes, year after 

 year finds the abundance still undiminished, inex- 

 haustible by human skill and avidity, irrepressible 

 by the combined voracity of all the tribes of ocean. 

 This, however, is by no means the sum of destruc^ 

 tion to which the species is liable. After the 

 spawn is hatched, while the fry are too young and 

 feeble to save themselves by flight or resistance, 

 they are pursued and devoured in shoals by numer- 

 ous greedy tyrants of the deep, and, still worse, by 

 their own gluttonous progenitors, clearly showing 

 that without some extraordinary exertion of crea- 

 tive energy, the existence of the species could not 

 have been protracted beyond a few years. 



