THE HERRING. 117 



sources of the inhabitants, as an article of food and commerce. 

 The general weight of these fishes is from twenty to thirty, or 

 sometimes even to forty pounds, although we have heard of some 

 being caught that weighed seventy ; but instances of this kind 

 are rarely met with. About the time of spawning, the salmon 

 becomes insipid, and loses much of its beautiful rose colour, 

 with which its flesh is at other times tinged. 



Although the salmon inhabits the ocean, it ascends the rivers 

 to deposit its spawn in security, at a great distance from their 

 efflux. These fishes are often taken in the Rhine, as high as 

 Basle, and even ascend to the sources of the rapid rivers of 

 Lapland. 



Nothing in the history of the salmon is more remarkable than 

 their instinctive perseverance in surmounting every obstacle that 

 opposes itself to their progress, and the surprising agility with 

 which they throw themselves up cataracts and precipices many 

 yards above the level of the water. In these leaps, although 

 foiled at a first or even a second attempt, they never desist until 

 they have gained their point. On the river Tivy, in England, 

 is a remarkable cataract, where the inhabitants of the environs 

 often amuse themselves with contemplating the strength and 

 agility of these fishes, when endeavouring to ascend the river 

 from the sea. There are in many other rivers these falls, called 

 salmon leaps ; but none that we know equal to the famous one 

 at Leixlip, in Ireland, where the agility of the salmon, and the 

 height to which they throw themselves, astonish every spectator. 



From this short sketch of the salmon, it is easy to form a con- 

 ception of its importance in commerce, and of the copious sup- 

 ply of palatable, wholesome and nutritious food, which it fur- 

 nishes for the table. We shall now direct attention to another 

 fish, inferior indeed to the salmon in regard to the quality of the 

 aliment which it furnishes ; but equal, or even superior, in re- 

 gard to its commercial importance. 



THE HERRING 



Is universally known ; but although any description of its con- 

 formation would, on that account, be totally useless, its history 

 is exceedingly interesting. The high northern latitudes appear 

 to be its native regions : it is there in the greatest abundance ; 

 and the frozen ocean which surrounds the pole seems to be the 

 cradle of the species. In those navigable seas, bound up with 

 ice the greatest part of the year, the herring and the pilchard 

 find a secure and peaceful retreat, equally inaccessible to man, 

 and to their numerous enemies of the deep. In those sequester- 

 ed abodes, their increase is beyond conception ; and it seems 

 that the consequent deficiency of insect food, on which they 

 12* 



