548 HISTORY OF 



bable it lies with greater force upon the organs of respiration, 

 and gives them their proper and necessary play : on the other 

 hand, those fish which are used only to fresh water, cannot bear 

 the weight of the saline fluid, and expire in a manner suffocated 

 in the grossness of the strange element. 



But though there are some tribes that live only in the sea, and 

 others only in fresh water, yet there are some whose organs are 

 equally adapted to either element ; and that spend a part of their 

 season in one, and a part in the other. Thus the salmon, the 

 shad, the smelt, and the flounder, annually quit their native 

 ocean, and come up our rivers to deposit their spawn. This 

 seems the most important business of their lives ; and there is 

 no danger which they will not encounter, even to the surmount- 

 ing precipices, to find a proper place for the deposition of their 

 future offspring. The salmon, upon these occasions, is seen to 

 ascend rivers five hundred miles from the sea ; and to brave not 

 only the danger of various enemies, but also to spring up cata- 

 racts as high as a house. As soon as they come to the bottom 

 of the torrent, they seem disappointed to meet the obstruction, 

 and swim some paces back : they then take a view of the dan- 

 ger that lies before them, survey it motionless for some minutes, 

 advance, and again retreat ; till at last summoning up all their 

 force, they take a leap from the bottom, their body straight, and 

 strongly in motion ; and thus most frequently clear every ob- 

 struction. It sometimes happens, however, that they want 

 strength to make the leap ; and then, in our fisheries, they are 

 taken in their descent. But this is one of the smallest dangers 

 that attend these adventuring animals in their progress : num- 

 berless are the methods of taking them ; as well by the hook, as 

 by nets, baskets, and other inventions, which it is not our busi- 

 ness here to describe. Their capture makes, in several coun- 

 tries, a great article of commerce ; and being cured in several 

 different manners, either by salting, pickling, or drying, they are 

 sent to all the markets of Europe. 



As these mount up the rivers to deposit their spawn, others, 

 particularly the eel, descend the fresh water stream, as Redi as- 

 sures us, to bring forth their young in the sea. About the month 

 of August, annually, these animals take the opportunity of the 

 most obscure nights, and when the rivers are flooded by acciden- 

 tal rains seek the ocean. When they have reached the sea, and 



