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PISCES-HERRING. 733 



• 

 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 

 coast of America, as far south as Carolina, and but seldom farther. In 

 Chesapeake Bay, the annual inundation of these fish is so gi-eat, 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, endeavor to save them- 

 selves from their merciless 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 suffered considerable diminutions, is, nevertheless, of 

 amazing extent, depth, and closeness, coveriag an extent of shore as large 

 as the island itself. The whole water seems alive; and is seen so black 

 with them at a great distance, that the number seems inexhaustible. 



That body which comes upon the English coast, 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 num- 

 ber of its greedy attendants, the gannet, the gull, the shark, and the porpus. 

 When the main body is arrived, its breadth and depth is such, as to alter the 

 very appearance 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, 

 reflect a variety of splendid colors, 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. 



Such has long been the received opinion with respect to the migration of 

 herrings, and it is so poetical that it is almost a pity to disturb it. But 

 science must listen only to the voice of truth. The author of the British 

 Naturalist has given, a rude shock to the migratory theory. " Simply, then, 

 the story cannot be true, (says he,) because it is impossible. The herrings 

 do not come in myriads from (he polar sea, beginning their progress in 

 January, because there are no means of producing them there. Spawn has 

 not been found to animate in any place except floating near the surface, or 

 in shallow water, where both the sun and the air act upon it ; and while the 

 polar seas and shores are open to such action, the herrings are not there ; 

 they are on our shores, the full grown and the young. But setting aside 

 the impossibility, the supposed emigration would be without an object ; they 

 Avould not come for food, as they are said to leave the north just when food 

 would be found there ; and if they are annually produced in the north, they 

 could not come to our shores for the purpose of spawning, even though they 

 are all obviously in preparation for such a purpose. Beside, there is no 

 animal that migrates southward in the spring; and therefore the theory 

 would require one law for the rest of creation, and another for the herring; 



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