30 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Fish, solitary or gregarious. 



commonly produces about one million, and the 

 mackarel above five hundred thousand. Scarce 

 one in a hundred of these eggs, however, brings 

 forth an animal: they are devoured by all the 

 lesser fry that frequent the shores, by water-fowl 

 in shallow waters, and by the larger fish in deep 

 waters. Such a prodigious increase, if permitted 

 to come to maturity, would overstock nature; 

 even the ocean itself would not be able to con- 

 tain, much less provide for, one half of its inha- 

 bitants. But two wise purposes are answered 

 by their amazing increase; it preserves the spe- 

 cies in the midst of numberless enemies, and 

 serves to furnish the rest with a sustenance 

 adapted to their nature. 



Fish, like the land animals, are either solitary 

 or gregarious. Some, as trout, salmon, &c. mi- 

 grate to deposit their spawn. Of the sea-fish, 

 the cod, herring, &c. assemble in immense shoals, 

 and migrate in these shoals through vast tracks 

 of the ocean. 



