12G 'J HE BOTlVM OF THE SEA. 



incredible agility of the dolphin, which travels in ;i 

 company so numerous, and gambols so joyously in 

 the track of the sailor, together with the sudden 

 appearance and disappearance of immense shoals of 

 fish at certain seasons, and the analogous migra- 

 tion of birds, naturally suggested that fish make long 

 journeys, and that certain species accomplish these 

 journeys periodically. The curious circumstances of 

 these periodic expeditions did not, however, become 

 known until the surface of the Ocean had been sub- 

 dued by the nations of the West ; until the fisheries of 

 Newfoundland, of the coasts of Norway, of England, 

 and of Brittany had called the attention of the learned 

 to the facts, a few instances of which were alone known 

 to the ancients. 



The tunny is among the number of fish that were 

 known to be travellers before tlie modern epoch. It 

 is found in the Mediterranean moving in a triangular 

 phalanx; one point forming the advance, as if to 

 cleave the waves more easily, while the base is often 

 of great extent. It is also abundant in the German 

 Ocean, on the coast of Guinea, in the region of the 

 Antilles, in the waters of Brazil, and in those of 

 Chili and China. The warmer waters are resorted 

 to by the tunny for breeding. Immense numbers 

 pass the winter in the eastern part of the Mediter- 

 ranean, where they deposit their eggs at depths o? 



