SPINOUS FISHES. 293 



The grand dhoal of haddocks that comes periodically on the Yorkshire 

 coasts, appeared there in a body on the tenth of December, 1766; 

 and exactly on the same day in the following year. This shoal ex- 

 tended from the shore near three miles in breadth, and in length fot 

 more than forty. The limits of a shoal are precisely known ; for if 

 the fishermen put down their lines at the distance of more than three 

 miles from shore, they catch nothing but dog-fish : a proof that the 

 haddock is not there. 



But of all migrating fish, the herring and the pilchard take the most 

 adventurous voyages. Herrings are found in the greatest abundance 

 in the highest northern latitudes. In those inaccessible seas, that are 

 covered with ice for a great part of the year, the herring and pilchard 

 find a quiet and sure retreat from all their numerous enemies : thither 

 neither man, nor their still more destructive enemy, the fin-fish, or the 

 cachalot, dares to pursue 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 mul- 

 tiply 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 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 cachalot swallow barrels at a yawn ; the porpoise, 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, stil] 

 more, the unnumbered flocks of sea-fowl, that chiefly inhabit near the 

 pole, watch the outset of their dangerous migration, and spread ex- 

 tensive 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 together in a body, and each finding some protection 

 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 annual 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 

 merciless pursuers, by approaching the first shore they 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, 

 ivhich has already suffered considerable diminutions, is, nevertheless, 

 of amazing extent, depth, and closeness, 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 

 inexhaustible. There the porpoise and the shark continue their de- 

 predations ; and the birds devour what quantities they please. By 



