118 



During the prevalence of a rapid current, when the 

 fresh is at its height, accompanied by a violent north 

 east wind, it is well known by fishermen that " the fish 

 will not run" as it is termed ; they seek shelter under 

 projecting points, and headlands, and in eddies where 

 they are less disturbed. 



In some instances, when the waters are turbid with 

 alluvion, they run into the small creeks and auxiliary 

 branches of larger size, and not knowing their situa- 

 tion on account of the water being so charged with mud 

 (for fishes cannot see better in muddy water than man 

 in a thick fog or smoke,) they pursue their course 

 through a wide extended flood, which overflows the 

 meadows and low grounds, into orchards and corn- 

 fields, where, on the sudden falling of the water, they 

 are often left in little ponds in low places. This is 

 sometimes the case with shad, but more particularly 

 with herrings, which have, in this situation, been caught, 

 by thousands, with baskets and buckets. 



It is also said, that whales by coming too near the 

 stream or current of the Maelstrom, are caught in its 

 yawning vortices ; in which situation, it is impossible 

 to describe the dreadful noise they make in their fruit- 

 less struggles to extricate themselves from the inevi- 

 table destruction that awaits them.* 



Admitting these facts, need we wonder, that while 

 the whole Atlantic ocean was agitated by a current 



*See Pontoppidan's History of Norway, page 79, and Brook's des- 

 cription of the Maelstrom. 



