172 THE CALL OF THE SEA 



there is nothing which may be had in such abund- 

 ance, and consequently so cheap, as fish, of which 

 Nature seems to have provided such inexhaustible 

 stores with some peculiar design. In the produc- 

 tion of terrestrial animals she proceeds with such 

 slowness that, in the larger kind, a single female 

 seldom produces more than one a year, and this 

 again requires three, four, or five years more to 

 bring it to perfection. And though the lesser 

 quadrupeds, those of the M'ild kind particularly, 

 with the birds, do multiply much faster, yet can 

 none of these bear any proportion with the aquatic 

 animals, of whom every female matrix is furnished 

 with an annual offspring almost exceeding the 

 power of numbers, and which, in many instances 

 at least, a single year is capable of bringing to 

 some degree of maturity. 



Henry Fielding. 



