446 COMMON HERRING. Class IV. 



from the German, Heer, an army, to express 

 their numbers. They begin to appear off the 

 Shetland isles in April and May ; these are 

 only forerunners of the grand shoal which 

 comes in June, and their appearance is marked 

 by certain signs, by the numbers of birds, such 

 as gannets, and others, which follow to prey on 

 them : but when the main body approaches, its 

 breadth and its depth is such as to alter the 

 appearance of the very ocean. It is divided 

 into distinct columns of five or six miles in 

 length, and three or four in breadth, and they 

 drive the water before them with a kind of rip- 

 pling : sometimes they sink for ten or fifteen 

 minutes, then rise again to the surface, and in 

 bright weather reflect a variety of splendid co- 

 lors, like a field of the most precious gems, in 

 which, or rather in a much more valuable light, 

 should this stupendous gift of Providence be 

 considered by the inhabitants of the British 

 isles. 



The first check this army meets with, in its 

 march southward, is from the Shetland isles, 

 which divide it into two parts ; one wing takes 

 to the east, the other to the western shores of 

 Great Britain, and fill every bay and creek 

 with their numbers ; others proceed towards 

 Yarmouth, the great and antient mart of her- 



