FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. • 13 



crumbling ruins alone attest its grandeur ; a 

 few huts, cliielly inhabited by fishermen, con- 

 stitute the modern village of" Tsour, (a rock,) 

 and it is literally a place where fishermen 

 spread their nets to dry. Volney, whose in- 

 fidelity was avowed, says, " The whole village 

 contains only fifty or sixty poor families, who 

 live but indifferently on the produce of their 

 little groimds, and a trifling fishery." 



In Genesis xlviii. 16, Jacob, in giving his 

 blessing to Ephraim and Manasseh, says, "Let 

 them grow into a multitude as do fishes ; " * a 

 sentence I'endered in our common translation, 

 " Let them grow into a multitude in the midst 

 of the earth." The appropriateness of the 

 comparison in the Hebrew is very striking, for 

 the fecundity of fishes is astonishing. The 

 most unceasing destruction by man, by birds, 

 and by their -warfare upon each other, appears 

 not to diminish their multitudes ; yet, perhaps, 

 it is seldom the case that any individual of 

 their countless hordes dies a natural death of 

 old age — it destroys, and is destroyed. To 

 counterbalance the loss there is a commen- 

 surate reproduction, and this and the havoc 

 keep pace with each other. The following 

 table from Harmer's paper on this subject, in 

 * Or, " Let them, as fishes do, increase." 



