IN SEPTEMBER. 261 



medicinal way. Apples come seasonably during 

 the heat of summer, because they temper the heat 

 of the blood, and cool the stomach and bowels. The 

 plums have an acid sweetness, with an oily, softening 

 juice, which may make them useful in many cases. 

 They gently open the body, and correct the acrid 

 humours, which so often occasion inflammatory dis- 

 orders. Nothing certainly is more delicious than 

 fruit. Each sort has a peculiar flavour to itself. 

 This variety renders them doubly pleasing to us. 

 Thus, God, like a tender father, provides not only 

 for the support of his creatures, but also for their, 

 pleasure. 



Herrings. 



This is the season in which they fish for herrings 

 on the coast of England and Scotland ; by which 

 means we receive a great quantity of these fish, 

 which feed the poor as well as the rich during the 

 whole year. Let us examine what is most impor- 

 tant in the natural history of these fish. Innumera- 

 ble shoals of herrings live in the Frozen Sea, near 

 the Ar<th Pole; but at a cert tin period they quit 

 that place, and come in multitudes to the coasts of 

 England and Scotland. It is not yet positively as- 

 certained what may be the cause of this emigration. 

 Some think it is to avoid whales and other great fish 

 in the frozen seas; others imagine that the prodi- 

 gious increase of the herring- M-.,-^ them to take 

 these long voyages, and to divide into separate colo- 



