232 GENERAL ANECDOTES CONNECTED 



The Migration of fishes is one of the most valu- 

 able gifts of the Creator to his creature man, by 

 which thousands and thousands support themselves 

 and their families, and which at certain seasons 

 form the food of millions. If we give the subject 

 of migration due consideration, and reflect what 

 would be the consequence if no animals ever 

 changed their quarters, consulting not only man's 

 sustenance, and the gratification of his palate, by 

 multiplying and varying his food, but also that of 

 his other senses, by the beauty, motions, and mu- 

 sic of the animals that are his summer or winter 

 visitors : did the nightingale forsake our groves ; 

 the swallow our houses and gardens; the cod-fish, 

 mackerel, salmon, and herring, our seas ; and all 

 the other animals that visit us ; how vast would 

 be the abstraction and comfort of our lives ! By 

 means of these migrations the profits and enjoy- 

 ments derivable from the animal creation are more 

 equally divided ; at one season visiting the south, 

 and enlivening the winter at another adding to 

 the vernal and summer delights of the inhabitants 

 of the north, and making up to him for the priva- 

 tions of the winter. What can more strongly 

 mark the design and the intention of an all-power- 

 ful arid all-wise beneficent Being, than that such a 

 variety of animals should be so organized and cir- 

 cumstanced as to be directed annually, by some 

 pressing want, to seek distant climates, and after 

 a certain period to return again to their former 



