292 A HISTORY OF 



slimy bodies to the surface of the object they desire to surmnunt. they 

 can thus creep up locks, weirs, and every thing that would prevent 

 their ascending the current of the stream. 



But the length of the voyage performed by these fishes, is sport, if 

 compared to what is annually undertaken by some tribes, that con- 

 stantly reside in the ocean. These are known to take a course of 

 three or four thousand miles in a season, serving for prey to whales, 

 sharks, and the numerous flocks of water-fowl, that regularly wait to 

 intercept their progress. They may be called fish of passage, and 

 .bear a strong analogy to birds of passage, both from their social dis- 

 position, and the immensity of their numbers. Of this kind are the 

 cod, the haddock, the whiting, the mackarel, the tunny, the herring, 

 and the pilchard. Other fish live in our vicinity, and reside on our 

 coasts all the year round ; or keep in the depths of the ocean, and are 

 but seldom seen : but these, at stated seasons, visit their accustomed 

 haunts with regular certainty, generally returning the same week in 

 the succeeding year, and often the same day. 



' The stated returns, and the regular progress of these fish of pas- 

 sage, is one of the most extraodinary circumstances in the History 

 of Nature. What it is that impels them to such distant voyages , 

 what directs their passage ; and what supports them by the way ; and 

 what sometimes prompts them to quit, for several seasons, one shore 

 for another, and then return to their accustomed harbour, are 

 questions that Curiosity may ask, but Philosophy can hardly resolve. 

 We must dismiss inquiry, satisfied with the certainty of the facts. 



The cod seems to be the foremost of this wandering tribe, and is 

 only found in our northern part of the world. This animal's chief 

 place of resort is on the banks of Newfoundland, and the other sand- 

 banks that lie off Cape Breton. That extensive flat seems to be no 

 other than the broad top of a sea-mountain, extending for above five 

 hundred miles long, and surrounded with a deeper sea. Hither the 

 cod annually repair in numbers beyond the power of calculation, to 

 feed on the quantity of worms that are to be found there in the sandy 

 bottom. Here they are taken in such quantities, that they supply all 

 Europe with a considerable share of provision. The English have 

 stages erected all along the shore for salting and drying them; and 

 the fishermen, who take them with the hook and line, which is their 

 method, draw them in as fast as they can throw out. This immense 

 capture, however, makes but a very small diminution, when compared 

 to their numbers ; and when their provision there is exhausted, or the 

 season for propagation returns, they go off to the polar seas, where 

 they deposit their roes in full security. From thence want of food 

 forces them, as soon as the first more southern seas are open, to re- 

 pair southward for subsistence. Nor is this fish an unfrequent visit- 

 ant upon our own shores; but the returns are not so regular, nor does 

 the capture bear any proportion to that at Newfoundland. 



The haddock, the whiting, and the mackarel, are thought by some 

 o be driven upon our coasts rather by their fears than their appetites; 

 and it is to the pursuit of the larger fishes we owe their welcome \ isits. 

 It is much more probable, that they come for that food which is found 

 in more plenty near the shore than farther out at sea. One thing is 

 remarkable that their migrations seem to be regularly corducted. 



