304 PHOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [March 25, 



the gale subsiding, a spectacle presented itself on the following 

 morning unparalleled by anything of the kind ever witnessed by the 

 present settlers. The whole surface of the lagoon and its banks, 

 from the entrance to the limits of high tide, was coyered with dead 

 fish, to a depth of a foot in some places, whilst a few disabled indi- 

 viduals were seen swimming in the lagoon or making their way back 

 with the returning tide. With the exception of a few ]^Iackerel 

 and Kew- York Flounder {Platessa planci), this vast host belonged to 

 one species, the Clupea elongata, or American Herring, and averaged 

 about 6 inches in length. The Herring is said to spawm in this 

 neighbourhood ; at all events large quantities are captured by torch- 

 light and nets, chiefly to form a patent manure, which is manufac- 

 tured at Eastport. Both before and for some days subsequent to 

 the 24th of September, large shoals were noticed along the coast, 

 and many barrelfuls of herrings were caught at the mouth of the 

 river. Some idea of the vast numbers congregated in the lagoon on 

 the occasion in question may be drawn from the fact that there was 

 not a farmer within a circuit of five miles who did not carry off 

 several cartloads for manure, so that a large portion disappeared 

 before my arrival on the 8th of October ; nevertheless the offensive 

 smell was experienced at a distance of two miles, and the air of the 

 surrounding country was contaminated also from the quantities 

 strewn on the fields by the farmers. On our arrival at the scene, 

 the smell became sickening ; the whole surface of the lagoon and its 

 banks were literally covered with decomposing fish, on which the 

 Kittiwake, Buffon's Squa, and other gulls, with crows, were feeding 

 sumptuously. It became clear that the shoal had been impelled by 

 the force of the waves on the coast, and were dashed to death 

 against the cliffs ; for the fallen masses of rock in the passage to 

 the lagoon -were thickly besmeared with herrings crushed as if they 

 had been pounded in a mortar, whilst the muddy bottom and allu- 

 vial bank of the lagoon were absolutely paved with their dead 

 bodies, in spite of the enormous quantities removed previously by 

 the settlers. By some fishermen it was surmised that the shoal had 

 been driven ashore by sharks or other predaceous fishes ; but the 

 presence of a severe gale at the time, a land-locked bay, and the fury 

 of the waves on such a vast mass of fish, once fairly within their 

 influence, indicate that their destruction was the result of mere 

 accident. When once the shoal of fishes got into shallow water (as 

 a matter of course at the entire mercy of an unusually boisterous 

 sea), it seems to me that there was no escape, and that their total 

 destruction was inevitable. 



Such incidents as the above seem exceedingly rare, at least as far 

 as this portion of America is concerned ; I notice, however, a similar 

 occurrence recorded in the Proceedings of this Society as having 

 taken place on the coast of India.* 



To the geologist, it is needless to remark, such accidents as the 

 above cannot be otherwise than intensely suggestive. Here we have 



* " On the Death of Fishes during the Monsoon off the Coast of India," by Sir 

 W. Denison, read June 18, 1862. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 453. 



