150 SALMONIDES. 



under jaw a trifle the longest ; — head quite small. 

 When cured, they are unfortunately considered 

 inferior to the European. But this is a 'mistake, 

 founded on prejudice. 



The herring of this country, carefully preserv- 

 ed, is no wise inferior to those of other countries. 

 They are caught in variously constructed nets, in 

 most of the rivers and fresh water streams, which 

 are so connected with the sea that the tide wa- 

 ter sets several miles up their channels. 



This tribe of fishes, so far as regards number, 

 if we credit the assertions of writers, very much 

 exceeds all others put together. In the northern 

 seas, inaccessible to many other beings, they have 

 an oceanic metropolis of their own, where they 

 multiply beyond all human computation.* 



Nature seems to have created them expressly 

 to become the food of the many monsters of the 

 deep ; as bread is the staff of life for man, so are 

 herring the food on which the unnumbered crea- 

 tures of the sea mainly depend. It has been com- 

 puted, that if a single herring were permitted to 



* Pennant's idea of the migration of herring, to the Polar 

 Sea, is generally questioned hy writers since his day; but 

 circumstances to which it is unnecessary to allude here, in 

 conjunction with the testimony of navigators, in our humble 

 opinion, amply sustain his assertions. 



