ifSKKS. 5J'{ 



water seems alive; and is seen so black with them to a giViU 

 distance, that the number seems inexhaustible. There the por- 

 poise and the shark continue their depredations ; and the birds 

 devour what quantities they please. By these enemies the her 

 rings are cooped up into so close a body, that a shovel, or any 

 hollow vessel, put into the water, takes them up without farther 

 trouble. 



That body which comes upon our coasts, begins to appear off 

 the Shetland Isles in April. These are the forerunners of the 

 grand shoal which descends in June ; while its arrival is easily 

 announced, by the number of its greedy attendants, the gannet, 

 the gull, the shark, and the porpoise. When the main body is 

 arrived, its breadth and depth is such as to alter the very ap- 

 pearance of the ocean. It is divided into distinct columns, of five 

 or six miles in length, and three or four broad ; while the water 

 before them curls up, as if forced out of its bed. Sometimes 

 they sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, then rise again 

 to the surface ; and, in bright weather, rellect a variety of splen- 

 did colours, like a field bespangled with purple, gold, and azure. 

 The fishermen are ready prepared to give them a proper recep- 

 tion ; and, by nets made for the occasion, they take sometimes 

 above two thousand barrels at a single draught. 



From the Shetland Isles, another body of this great army, 

 where it divides, goes off to the western coasts of Ireland, where 

 tliey meet with a second necessity of dividing. The one takes 

 to the Atlantic, where it is soon lost in that extensive ocean ; 

 the other passes into the Irish sea, and furnishes a very consider- 

 able (capture to the natives. 



In this manner the herrings, expelled from their native seas, 

 seek those bays and shores where they can find food, and the 

 best defence against their unmerciful pursuers of the deep. In 

 general, the most inhabited shores are the places where the larger 

 animals of the deep are least fond of pursuing ; and these are 

 C'hosen by the herrings as an asylum from great dangers. Thus, 

 along the coasts of Norway, the (rerman shores, and the northern 

 shores of Fiance, these animals are found punctual in their visi- 

 tations. In these dilTerent places they produce their young ; 

 which, when come to some degree of maturity, attend the gene- 

 ral motions. After the destruction of such numbers, the quan- 



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