NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Capricious visits Order of proceeding. 



multiplication, which makes good the immense 

 quantities that are daily consumed." 



Indeed it appears from one circumstance, that 

 these creatures are governed by a choice iti 

 respect of the shores they pitch upon ; or that 

 having fixed upon a shore, they will frequent it 

 for several seasons, or indeed for several ages, 

 and then most capriciously forsake it. For some 

 ages the shores of Norway were the resort for 

 herrings, as the banks of Newfoundland are for 

 cod, and thousands of European ships resorted 

 thither ; but some short time previous to the year 

 16(X>, they forsook the Norwegian coasts, and 

 made the shores of Germany their annual resort, 

 where the Hanse towns derived much advantage 

 from their capture and sale. For above a cen- 

 tury, however, their greatest colonies have visited 

 the British Channel and the Irish shores, though 

 for their apparently capricious desertion it will 

 not be easy to assign a cause. This we may ob- 

 serve, that from the earliest accounts of time, the 

 blessing of their annual visitation has never been 



O 



withdrawn from the whole, though it may have 

 been denied to particulars. 



The shoals of herrings proceed in regular 

 order like the salmon ; two or three days after 

 spawning they return to the open sea, making a 

 noise like a violent shower of rain. No tish is 

 exposed to greater persecution than the herring; 

 man in particular maintains a continual war 

 against it, not only on the coasts, but even send- 



