248 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



against their enemies : the herring still rises in legions from the 

 deeper waters, as soon as the coasts are warmed by the genial 

 influence of the vernal sun ; the salmon still Wanders up the 

 streams that witnessed the migrations of his forefathers in far- 

 distant ages, and the cod never ceases to fulfil the expectations 

 of the fisherman. 



Under the protection of an Almighty Lawgiver the equilibrium 

 of the inhabitants of the ocean is thus constantly preserved 

 though constantly assailed ; and though the scythe of death is 

 indefatigably mowing throughout Neptune's domains, it is but 

 to celebrate the eternal triumph of life. 



In various ways Providence has found means to preserve the 

 persecuted races of the fishes : particularly among those that 

 annually congregate on sandbanks or on the coasts, or are ex- 

 posed during their migrations to numberless attacks, a surpris- 

 ing fecundity makes up for exorbitant losses. Five hundred 

 thousand eggs have been found in a single mackerel, a million 

 and a half in a flounder, six millions in a sturgeon, ten millions 

 in a cod, and twenty millions in a salmon. Thus myriads of 

 eggs may be devoured by other fishes; seals, sea-birds, and 

 man, the most rapacious of all carnivorous beings, may feed for 

 months upon millions of the herring or the cod before they retire 

 again to the depths of the ocean ; and yet the species resists 

 every storm, and continually reappears in undiminished numbers. 



The wonderful instinct which forces the salmon, the sturgeon, 

 and other fishes periodically to leave the sea, for the purpose of 

 depositing their spawn upon the shallow beds of rivers, is another 

 of the great agencies which Nature employs for the maintenance 

 and wide dissemination of many of the finny tribes that would 

 otherwise have been confined to narrow limits, or would long 

 since have been extirpated by their enemies. 



Generally inhabitants of the cold and temperate zones, these 

 fishes find during the winter, in the deeper waters of the sea, the 

 warmth and nourishment which the frozen streams no longer 

 can afford them ; but in spring and summer, when the rivers 

 teem with numberless worms and insects, and their tepid waters 

 afford the necessary warmth for the hatching of their eggs, they 

 begin their wanderings stream-upwards, frequently ascending 

 many hundreds of miles from the river's mouth in regular array; 

 the largest individual, which is usually a female, taking the 



