552 iiisrouY OF 



cesfiible seas, that are covered with ice for a great part of the 

 year, the herring 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 veiy 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, Ander- 

 son 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 herrings, 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 porpoise, the grampus, the shark, and the whole nu- 

 merous 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 

 Chesapeak 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 mer- 

 ciless 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 arrival on that coast, their 

 phalanx, which has already sufiered considerable diminutions, is, 

 nevertheless, of amazing extent, depth, and closeness, covering 

 an extent of sliore as large as the island itself. The whole 



