THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 85 
individuals of which the shoals are composed, and 
in the fecundity by which the populousness of these 
shoals are maintained. Nine millions of eggs have 
been ascertained to exist in the roe of a single Cod, 
and the hosts of this, and other species, which during 
the fishing-season crowd our shores, are utterly be- 
yond human calculation. These swarms were for- 
merly believed to perform vast annual migrations in 
military order from the Polar regions in spring, and 
back again to their homes “ beneath the ice” in the 
autumn. The groundlessness, and even absurdity of 
this notion has been shown, and it is now generally 
known, that the fishes are at no part of the year 
more than a few miles distant from the coast, but 
that on the approach of warm weather an unerring 
instinct teaches them, as by common impulse, to 
seek the shallows near the shore, in order to deposit 
their spawn within the vivifying influence of the 
summer sun. This grand business of life being ac- 
complished, they again retire, not to the Arctic ice, 
but to the deep water of the offing, where they may 
again rove in freedom and conscious security. And 
this is an admirable ordination of Divine Provi- 
dence, that these tribes are thus periodically brought 
within the reach of man precisely at the season 
‘when they are in the highest condition, and there- 
fore most wholesome, as well as most agreeable. 
For they come from the deep water fat, and in 
full health and vigour; but after having spawned 
they return sickly and poor, to recruit their ex- 
hausted strength. 
The Herring family (Cluwpeade), including the 
i 
