THE COMMON HERRING. 233 



ground upon the bank, and thawing in that position, deposit their geo- 

 logical burdens, thus year by year adding to the mass. To render this 

 conclusion more satisfactory, it will be well to refer to the hydrogra- 

 pher's chart, by which we ascertain that the ocean bed above the Bank is 

 shelving, while after passing it, the depth suddenly increases by a pre- 

 cipitous descent, of some three thousand feet, thus showing that it is 

 formed from the north, while the current of the Gulf presents a barrier 

 to this deposit, which would otherwise be washed away to the southward, 

 and the great cod fishery of Newfoundland be diminished to a consider- 

 able extent. 



Now, what an area is here presented for mollusks and crustaceans to 

 inhabit — gravelly beds, sandy slopes, rocky masses, large and small to 

 give them shelter, while those thousands of tons of earthy matter filled 

 with minute organisms are continually being brought down from the 

 northward to afford them food. And as it is such a promising pasture 

 for these smaller residents, which, congregating there in myriads to feed 

 and propagate their species, we may readily conclude that these crea- 

 tures, which form the principal part of the food of the cod, attract those 

 fishes to thepositi >n,and finding there an abundance of prey at all seasons, 

 remain to spawn ; as codfish are reproduced by millions annually, we 

 can in a measure account for the immense stock which for hundreds of 

 years has rilled every part of that immense ichthyological storehouse, 

 and proved such a blessing to mankind. 



These currents have also a great effect upon the migration of fishes, 

 and to prove this I have only to call attention to the following 

 facts. In summer time, when the Gulf Stream extends its northern 

 boundary, which, commencing at Cape Cod runs close to our coast 

 and thence to Newfoundland, several kinds of southern fishes are 

 observed in our waters, one of these, a species of Mouocanthus, 

 is so truly a southern genus that only one species has been 

 recorded as having been captured so far north as Massachusetts. 

 Another, the albicore, so well known in warmer latitudes, is abundant 

 here during the months of July and August, the Rev. John Ambrose 

 having observed twelve at one time off French Village, St. Margaret's 

 Bay. Then as to northern fishes, when in winter time, particularly dur- 

 ing the later months of that season and those of spring, the Arc- 

 tic current comes pouring down from the north, forcing the waters of 

 the Gulf to the southward, and washing the banks of Newfoundland 

 exerting a cooling influence even to the latitude of 40 deg., it brings with 

 it many fishes to our shores whose presence during that particular season 

 I have just mentioned could in no other way be satisfactorily accounted 

 for — hence we have the occurrence of the Gieenland Shark (Scymnus 

 borealis) recently brought to our notice, an inhabitant of the seas of the 

 far north ; the Norway Haddock (Sebastes Norvegicus), an extreme 

 northern fish — and the Cusk (Brosmius vulgaris), another strictly 

 northern form, having its proper habitat between the parallels of 60 deg. 



VOL. iv. T 



