MIGRATIONS. 



the form of a parallelogram, or as some say, a 

 triangle, and making a great noise and stir. 

 They appear to have been much in request with 

 the Greeks and Romans, and are now an impor- 

 tant article of food with the inhabitants of the 

 coasts and islands of the Mediterranean. 



But no fish is so important a gift of Heaven, 

 as affording employment to a large number of 

 individuals both in the catching and preparing 

 it, and as adding very largely to the general 

 stock of food, especially in Catholic countries, 

 as that of whose history I shall next give a brief 

 sketch. 



Three thousand decked vessels, of different 

 sizes, besides smaller boats, are stated to be 

 annually employed in the herring-fishery, with 

 a proportionable number of seamen, besides a 

 vast number of hands that, at certain seasons, 

 are occupied in curing them. 



The herring to which I now allude belongs to 

 the tribe called abdominal fishes, or those whose 

 ventral fins are behind the pectoral, and may 

 be said to inhabit the arctic seas of Europe, 

 Asia, and America, from whence they annually 

 migrate, at different times, in search of food 

 and to deposit their spawn. Their shoals con- 

 sist of millions of myriads, and are many 

 leagues in width, many fathoms in thickness, 

 and so dense that the fishes touch each other ; 

 they are preceded, at the interval of some days, 



VOL. I. I 



