thy term the King of Herrings, and when they chance 

 to catch it alive, they drop it carefully into the sea, 

 judging it petty treason to destroy a fish of that 

 name. 



Mackrels come in the same numbers at certain times 

 of the year, and for the same reason. They are par- 

 ticularly fond of a sea-plant, the narrow-leaved purple 

 sea-wick, which abounds on the coasts of England, 

 and is in its greatest perfection in the beginning of 

 summer, though at sometimes later than others, ac- 

 cording to the severity or mildness of the winter. 



The chief occasion of their coming is to feed on 

 this plant ; and those who attend to its growing up, 

 would know when to expect the mackrel, better than 

 those who listen for thunder. . 



But this is not the sole occasion of their coming. 

 The real truth is this : the sea near the pole is the nati?e 

 country of all fish of passage ; the ice which continu- 

 ally covers that sea affords them a safe retreat. Large 

 voracious fish want a free air for perspiration, and 

 cannot pursue the smaller sort into their sanctuaries, 

 where they multiply so prodigiously, that at length 

 for want of subsistence, they are forced to quit their 

 retreat. The large fish wait for them at the extremity 

 of the ice; they devour all they can catch, drive them 

 close into the coast, while the birds of prey pour down 

 upon them from all quarters. In consequence of tfyis 

 persecution, their march is always in columns, which 

 are commonly as thick as they are broad. With re- 

 gard to the herrings, they quit the ice in the beginning 

 of the year ; but the prodigious column which they 

 form soon divides into two wings. The right moves 

 westward, so as to be near Iceland in the month of 

 March ; the left bends its course easterly, and comes 

 down the north sea to a certain latitude, where it 

 divides into two other wings, the eastern- most of 

 which coasts along Norway. Hence it sends off one 

 division by the strait of the Sound into the Baltic, 

 another towards the country of Holstein, Bremen, 



