NATURAL HISTORY. 329 



&quot; Barefoot may no neighbour wade 

 In thy cool streams, wife nor maid, 

 When the spawns c-n stones do lye, 

 To wash their hemp, and spoil the fry.&quot; 



BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. 



jonds where electric eels abound are frequently knocked down by its violence ; and 

 the Indians of South America, where the gymnotus abounds, are frequently 

 Irowned while bathing, being stunned by the shock from these animals. 



It is remarkable that in tropical lands there are found the choicest fruits, the 

 most beautiful flowers, the grandest plumage, the richest perfumes ; and there, 

 too, the rattle-snake has the deadliest poison, and the gymnotus its strange 

 electrical power.* 



1050. Why is the herring so called? 



From the German hcer, an army, with reference to the numbers 

 in which they move from place to place. 



1051. Why do herrings migrate ? 



The migrations of the herring are analogous to those of certain 

 birds. Impelled by unfailing instinct, the herring leaves the 

 depths of our surrounding seas to deposit its spawn in the 

 shallower waters of the coast, there to be vivified by the genial 

 influence of the sun ; and after accomplishing its purpose, it 

 retires to the remoter deeps. 



1052. The herring is es?entially a northern fish ; seldom has it been found so fai 

 south as the Bay of Biscfc/, in Europe, or the coast of Carolina, in America. Likt 

 plants that, flourishing in certain climates only, become fewer and more stunted 

 the nearer they approach the limits of their zone, herrings decrease in number 

 and si/e as they approach their assigned southern boundary those caught on the 

 southern shores of England being considerably smaller that those which frequent 

 the coast of Norway. Thus it is that about the month of July, the grand array of 

 herrings is found to the northward of the Shetlands, in distinct columns five and six 

 miles long, three and four miles broad. Pressing for the shallows, they drive the 

 sea before them in a continuous ripple. Sometimes they sink down fathoms deep 

 for a few minutes, then again rising to the surface, sparkle in the sun like a prairie 

 strewn with diamonds. Nor even during the calm summer night is the sceno less 

 brilliant, from the intense scintillations of phosphoric light exhibited by the count 

 less myriads of moving fish. The quantity of life in these shoals would be completely 

 beyond belief if we did not recollect that 36,000 eggs have been counted in the 

 spawn of one herring. 



1053. Why do herrings swim, in shoals ? 



Because, like migratory birds and quadrupeds, large numbers of 



* Pennant. 



