158 NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Mode of taking their long voyages. 



Bloch remarks, usually appear in companies, 

 forming two lines, resembling the sides of a 

 triangle, in the following order: the largest, 

 which is usually a female, takes the lead ; at the 

 distance of a fathom come two others, and the 

 remainder follow in the same order, so that if 

 the troop consist of thirty-one, there are fifteen 

 on each side. When their ranks are broken by 

 a fall, a dyke, or any noise, as soon as the ob- 

 stacle is surmounted, they appear again in the 

 former order. But if they come to a net, they 

 make a halt ; some endeavour to escape under- 

 neath, or on the sides ; and if one of the troop 

 find a passage, the others follow, and form again 

 in the same order as before. The females com- 

 monly go first, the largest of the males follow, 

 and the rear is composed of the smallest fish. 

 These troops are sometimes so large, that by 

 uniting their strength, they break through the 

 nets that oppose them, and escape. They make 

 a great noise as they advance, keeping in the 

 middle of the rivers, and near the surface, ex- 

 cepting in stormy, or "very hot weather, when 

 they retire to the bottom of the water, and pas* 

 un perceived. 



Such are the remarkable long voyages of this 

 fish. They pass, for example, from the North 

 Sea into the Elbe, and proceed as far as Bohe- 

 mia through the Mulda, and into Switzerland up 

 the Rhine. When about to leap over a dyke 

 or fall that opposes them, resting upon large 



