100 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



in the depth of winter, when all fish leave the coasts of 

 his country. 



Now singly, now in shoals, fish are constantly seen 

 moving through the ocean. The delicate mackerel travels 

 towards the south, the small, elegant sardine of the Medi- 

 terranean, moves, in spring, westward, and returns in fall 

 to the east. The sturgeon of northern seas, sails lonely 

 up the large rivers of the continent of Europe, and has 

 been found in the very heart of Germany, under the shadow 

 of the famous cathedral of Strasburg. Triangular masses 

 of salmon press up nearly all northern rivers, and are 

 sometimes so numerous, so closely packed, that they ac- 

 tually impede the current of large rivers. Before their 

 arrival, countless millions of herrings leave the same wa- 

 ters, but where their home is, man has not yet found 

 out. Only in the spring months there suddenly appear 

 vast banks of this remarkable fish, two or three miles 

 wide, and twenty to thirty miles long, and so dense are the 

 crowds, so great their depth, that lances and harpoons 

 even the sounding lead thrown at random amongst them, 

 do not sink, but remain standing upright. What numbers 

 are devoured by sharks and birds of prey, is not known ; 

 what immense quantities are caught along the coast, to 

 be spread as manure on the fields inland, is beyond all 

 calculation ; and yet it has been ascertained that over a 

 thousand millions alone, are annually salted for winter con- 

 sumption ! 



The life of the ocean is gigantic in numbers not only, 

 but also in all its dimensions. Whales of a hundred feet 

 length and more, are the largest of all animals on earth, 



