310 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



resolve. We must dismiss inquiry, satisfied 

 ivith the certainty of the facts. 



The cod seems to be the foremost of this 

 wandering tribe, and is only found in our 

 northern part of the world. This animal's 

 chief place of resort is on the banks of New- 

 foundland, and the other sand-banks that lie 

 off Cape Breton. That extensive flat seems 

 to be no other than the broad top of a sea- 

 mountain, extending for above live hundred 

 miles long, and surrounded with a deeper sea. 

 Hither the cod annually repair in numbers 

 beyond the power of calculation, to feed on the 

 quantity of worms that are to be found there 

 in the sandy bottom. Here they are taken in 

 such quantities, that they supply all Europe 

 with a considerable share of provision. The 

 English have stages erected all along the 

 shore for salting and drying them ; and the 

 fishermen, who take them with the hook 

 and line, which is their method, draw them 

 in as fast as they can throw out. This im- 

 mense capture, however, makes but a very 

 small diminution when compared to their 

 numbers; and when their provision there is 

 exhausted, or the season for propagation re- 

 turns, they go off to the polar seas, where 

 they deposit their roes in full security. From 

 thence want of food forces them, as soon as 

 the first more southern seas are open, to repair 

 southward for subsistence. Nor is this fish an 

 unfrequent visitant upon our own shores : 

 but the returns are not so regular, nor does 

 the capture bear any proportion to that at 

 Newfoundland. 



The haddock, the whiting, and the mack- 

 erel are thought by some to be driven upon 

 our coasts rather by their fears than their 

 appetites ; and it is to the pursuit of the larger 

 fishes we owe their welcome visits. It is 

 much more probable, that they come for that 

 food which is found in more plenty near the 

 shore than farther out at sea. One thing is 

 remarkable, that their migrations seem to be 

 regularly conducted. The grand shoal of 

 haddocks that comes periodically on the 

 Yorkshire coasts, appeared there in a body on 

 the tenth of December, I 766 ; and exactly on 

 the same day in the following year. This 

 shoal extended from the shore near three 

 miles in breadth, and in length for more than 

 forty. The limits of a shoal are precisely 

 known ; for if the fishermen put down their 

 lines at the distance of more than three miles 

 from shore, they catch nothing but dog-fish: 

 a proof that the haddock is not there. 



But of all migrating fish, the herring and 

 the pilchard take the most adventurous voy- 

 ages. Herrings are found in the greatest 

 abundance in the highest northern latitudes. 

 In those inaccessible seas, that are covered 

 with ice for a great part of the year, the her- 



ring and pilchard find a quiet and sure retreat 

 from all their numerous enemies ; thither 

 neither man, nor their still more destructive 

 enemy, the fin-fish, or the cachalot, dares to 

 pursue them. The quantity of insect food 

 which those seas supply, is very great ; 

 whence, in that remote situation, defended by 

 the icy rigour of the climate, they live at ease, 

 and multiply beyond expression. From this 

 most desirable retreat, Anderson supposes they 

 would never depart, but that their numbers 

 render it necessary for them to migrate ; and, 

 as with bees from a hive, they are compelled 

 to seek for other retreats. 



For this reason, the great colony is seen to 

 set out from the icy sea about the middle of 

 winter; composed of numbers, that if all the 

 men in the world were to be loaded with her- 

 rings, they would not carry the thousandth 

 part away. But they no sooner leave their 

 retreats, but millions of enemies appear to 

 thin their squadrons. The fin-fish and the 

 cachalot swallow barrels at a yawn ; the por- 

 poise, the grampus, the shark, and the whole 

 numerous tribe of dog-fish, find them an easy 

 prey, and desist from making war upon each 

 other ; but, still more, the unnumbered flocks 

 of sea-fowl, that chiefly inhabit near the pole, 

 watch the outset of their dangerous migration, 

 and spread extensive ruin. 



In this exigence the defenceless emigrants 

 find no other safety but by crowding closer 

 together, and leaving to the outmost bands the 

 danger of being first devoured ; thus, like 

 sheep when frighted, that always run together 

 in a body, and each finding some protection 

 in being but one of many that are equally 

 liable to invasion, they are seen to separate 

 into shoals, one body of which, moves to the 

 west, and pours down along the coasts of 

 America, as far as South Carolina, and but 

 seldom farther. In Chesapeake Bay, the 

 annual inundation of these fish is so great, 

 that they cover the shores in such quantities 

 as to become a nuisance. Those that hold 

 more to the east, and come down towards 

 Europe, endeavour to save themselves from 

 their merciless pursuers, by approaching the 

 first shore they can find ; and that which first 

 offers in their descent, is the coast of Iceland, 

 in the beginning of March. Upon their arri- 

 val on that coast, their phalanx, which has 

 already suffered considerable diminutions, is 

 nevertheless, of amazing extent, depth, and 

 closeness, covering an extent of shore as large 

 as the island itself. The whole water seems 

 alive ; and is seen so black with them to a 

 great distance, that the number seems inex- 

 haustible. There the porpoise and the shark 

 continue their depredations ; and the birds 

 devour what quantities they please. By 

 these enemies the herrings are cooped up into 



