68 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



sea, at least, sailing up the river Elbe ; they approach 

 Switzerland in the green waters of the Rhine, and even 

 the foot of the Cordilleras by a journey of three thousand 

 miles up the Amazon ! Their crowds are not unfrequently 

 so dense that they actually stem, for awhile, the current 

 of mighty rivers; still these bands are formed with great 

 regularity, The strongest and largest females lead a fact 

 which will rejoice the strong-minded women of our age 

 followed by others of the same sex, travelling two and 

 two at regular intervals; after them come the males in 

 like order. With a noise like the distant roaring of a 

 storm, they rush up the stream, now sporting in easy, 

 graceful motion, and now darting ahead with lightning 

 speed that the eye cannot follow. Do they come to some 

 rock or wall that impedes their way, they leap with in- 

 credible force, and repeat the effort until they have over- 

 come the difficulty ; it is even said, that, at the foot of 

 cataracts, they will take their tail in their mouth, and 

 then, suddenly letting it go, like an elastic spring, rise 

 twelve or fifteen feet in the air. Thus they travel on, 

 undismayed and untired, until they have found a suitable 

 place for depositing their eggs, and with the same mar- 

 vellous instinct return, year after year, to the distant ocean. 

 It is in their connection with the wants of men, how- 

 ever, that these migrations of fishes become most impor- 

 tant and interesting. It is well known that they furnish 

 the sole food of some nations, and contribute in others a 

 vast and cheap supply that covers the table of the poor 

 man with plenty. Migrating fishes are thus one of the 

 greatest and most invaluable gifts of the Creator, by which 



