C54 



A HISTORY OF 



abundance in the highest northern latitudes. 

 In those inaccessible seas, that are covered 

 with ice fora great part of the year, the her- 

 ring and pilchard find a quiet and sure retreat 

 from all their numerous enemies : thither nei- 

 ther man, nor their still more destructive ene- 

 my, the fin-fish, or the cachalot, dares to pur- 

 sue them. The quantity of insect food which 

 those seas supply, is very great; whence, in 

 that remote situation, defended by the icy 

 rigour of the climate, they live at ease, and 

 multiply beyond expression. From this most 

 desirable retreat, Anderson supposes, they 

 would never depart, but that their numbers 

 render it necessary for them to migrate ; and, 

 as with bees from a hive, they are compelled 

 to seek for other retreats. 



For this reason, the great colony is seen 

 to set out from the icy sea about the middle 

 of winter; composed of numbers, that if all 

 the men in the world were to be loaded with 

 herrings, they would not carry the thousandth 

 part away. But they no sooner leave their 

 retreats, but millions of enemies appear to 

 thin their squadrons. The fin-fish and the 

 cachalot swallow barrels at a yawn ; the por- 

 poise, the grampus, the shark, and the whole 

 numerous tribe of dog-fish, find them an easy 

 prey, and desist from making war upon each 

 other: but. still more, the unnumbered flocks 

 of sea-fowl, that chiefly inhabit near the pole, 

 watch the outset of their dangerous migration, 

 and spread extensive ruin. 



in this exigence the defenceless emigrants 

 find no other safety but by crowding closer 

 together, and leaving to the outmost bands 

 the danger of being the first devoured; thus, 

 like sheep when frighted, that always run to- 

 gether in a body, and each finding some pro- 

 tection in being but one of many that are 

 equally liable to invasion, they are seen to 

 separate into shoals, one body of which moves 

 to the west, and pours down along the coasts 

 of America, as far south as Carolina, and but 

 seldom farther. In Chesapeak Bay, the an- 

 nual inundation of these fish is so great, that 

 they cover the shores in such quantities as to 

 become a nuisance. Those that hold more 

 to the east, and come down towards Europe, 

 endeavour to save themselves from their mvr- 

 ciless pursuers, by approaching the first shore 

 *hey can find ; and that which first offers in 



their descent, is the coast of Iceland, in the 

 beginning of March. Upon their arrival on 

 that coast, their phalanx, which has already 

 suffered considerable diminutions, is, never- 

 theless, of amazing extent, depth, and close- 

 ness, covering an extent of shore as large as 

 the island itself. The whole water seems 

 alive ; and is seen so black with them to a 

 great distance, that the number seems inex- 

 haustible. There the porpoise and the shark 

 continue their depredations; and the birds 

 devour what quantities they please. By these 

 enemies the herrings are cooped up into so 

 close a body, that a shovel, or any hollow 

 vessel, put into the water, takes them up with- 

 out farther trouble. 



That body which comes upon our coasts, 

 begins to appear off the Shetland Isles in 

 April. These are the forerunners of the 

 grand shoal which descends in June; while 

 its arrival is easily announced, by the num- 

 ber of its greedy attendants, the gannet, the 

 gull, the shark, and the porpoise. When the 

 main body is arrived, its breadth and depth 

 is such as to alter the very appearance of the 

 ocean. It i? divided into distinct columns, of 

 five or six miles in length, and three or four 

 broad ; while the water before them curls up, 

 as if forced out of its bed. Sometimes they 

 sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, 

 then rise again to the surface; and, in bright 

 weather, reflect a variety of splendid colours, 

 like afield bespangled wilh purple, gold, and 

 azure. The fishermen are ready prepared 

 to give them a proper reception ; and, by 

 nets made for the occasion, they take some- 

 times above two thousand barrels at a single 

 draught. 



From the Shetland Isles, another body of 

 this great army, where it divides, goes off to 

 the western coasts of Ireland, where they 

 meet with a second necessity of dividing. The 

 one takes to the Atlantic, where it is soon 

 lost in that extensive ocean ; the other passes 

 into the Irish sea, and furnishes a very con- 

 siderable capture to the natives. 



In this manner, the herrings, expelled from 

 their native seas, seek those bays and shores 

 where they can find food, and the best defence 

 against their unmerciful pursuers of the deep. 

 In general, the most inhabited shores are the 

 places where the larger animals of the deep 



