HENRY FIELDING 171 



work, such as there is about a ship foundering in 

 mid-ocean, would ever reach in a recognisable 

 form the bottom of the sea at a depth of more 

 than 2000 fathoms. There is an idea, popularly 

 current among seafarers, that sunken ships in the 

 deep sea only go down a certain distance, no 

 matter what their build or how ponderous their 

 cargo. Having reached a certain stratum, they 

 then drift about, slowly disintegrating, derelicts of 

 the depths, swarming with strange denizens, the 

 shadowy fleets of the lost and loved ;md mourned. 



F. T. Bidlen. 



Abundance of Fish in the Sea "^^ 



(From the Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon) 



/^F all the animal foods with which man is 

 furnished, there are none so plenty as fish. 

 A little rivulet, that glides almost unperceivcd 

 through a vast tract of rich land, will support more 

 hundreds with the flesh of its inhabitants than the 

 meadow will nourish individuals. But if this be 

 true of rivers, it is much truer of the seashores, 

 which abound with such immense variety of fish 

 that the curious fisherman, after he hath made 

 his draught, often culls only the daintiest part and 

 leaves the rest of his prey to perish on the shore. 

 If this be true, it would appear, I think, that 



