i^S ' OF SPINOUS FISHES IN GENERAL; 



The fillicrmen take fometimes two thoufind barrels at a fingle draugliC 

 of their nets. At the Shetland ifles this great army divides, part to the 

 weftern coafts of Ireland, where a fecond time they divide to the Atlantic 

 Ocean and to the Irifh Sea. They feek thofe bays and ihores where they 

 can beft find food and defence. The quantity that attempts to return is 

 but fmall ; and Anderfon doubts whether they ever return. 



Many doubts arife on every part of this migration. Though fuch 

 numbers perifh, yet, in comparifon to thofe that furvive, the account is 

 trifling: it is fuppofed that thofe taken by man, are not one to a mil- 

 lion. Tiieir leaving the (hore at a dated time, feems not the impulfe of 

 neceffity ; neither is their fixing on fom.e fhores for ages, then caprici- 

 oufly forfaking them, never to return. This feems to indicate as if food 

 had its fhare of attraftion, and was not always in equal plenty. Bt:fore 

 the year 1584, the number of fhips that reforted to Norway was fome 

 thoufands. The quantity of herrings was fuch, that a man who fhould 

 put a fpear in the water, as Olaus Magnus afferts, would fee it Itand on 

 end. But foon after they defcrted thefe Ihores for the German coaft, 

 '^herc the Hanfe- towns drove a very great trade by their capture and 

 fale ; but, for above a century, they have greatly forfaken them, and 

 preferred the Britilh Channel and the Irifh (hores. 



The PILCHARD, which differs little from the herring, makes the 

 coaft of Cornwall its principal refort. The natives fometimes inclofe a 

 bay of feveral miles extent with their nets, called feines. The fhoals 

 arc perceived by the colour of the water, which affumes a tincture from 

 the fifhes beneath. Sometimes twelve or fifteen hundred barrels are 

 taken at a draught ; ofien the quantity caught exceeds the fait or the 

 utenfiis for curing them ; and then they are carried off for manure. 



Whence thefc infinite numbers are derived, remains obfcure j but it is 

 notorious that the STICKLEBACK, of two inches long, that might 

 be thought eafily fupported in any water, is obliged to colonize, and 

 leave its native fens. Every fevenih or eighth year, amazing flioals of 

 thefe appear in the river Well and, near Spalding, and come up the 

 ftrcam. • They are fuppofed to be detached from fome of the fens, over- 

 charged with numbers. A man, employed by a farmer to take them for 

 manure, got for a confiderable time four fhiilings a day, by felling 

 them at a halfpenny per bufhel ! 



Such is the amazing propagation of fiflies in our own climate ; but 

 this bears no proportion to the vaft quantities in the Indian ocean, 

 where it is but going down to the fhore, and filii are found in great 



numbers, 



