[ i?7 1 



THE HERRING TRIBE. 



THE body of the Herring is compressed, and 

 covered with scales ; and the belly is extremely- 

 sharp, sometimes forming a serrated ridge. In the 

 gill-membrane there are eight rays. The jaws are 

 unequal, and the upper one is furnished with ser- 

 rated mystaces or connecting bones. The tail is 

 forked. 



THE COMMON HERRING*. 



Herrings are found in the greatest abundance in 

 the highest northern latitudes. In those inacces- 

 sible seas that are covered with ice for a great part 

 of the year, they find a quiet and sure retreat from 

 all their numerous enemies. The quantity of in- 

 sects which those seas supply is immensely great. 

 Thus remotely situated, and defended by the icy 

 rigour of the climate, they live at ease, and multiply 

 beyond expression, coming out from thence in such 

 shoals that, were all the men in the world to be 

 loaded with herrings, they could not carry off the 

 thousandth part of them. Their enemies are, how- 

 ever, extremely numerous : all the monsters of the 

 deep find them an easy prey; and, in addition to 



* Clupea harengus. Linn. Penn. Brit. ZooL tab. 65. 



VOL. III. N 



