Chev oH BO RVR PUN (G: 285 
They are met with in vaft fhoals on the coaft of 
America, as low as Carolina. In Chefapeak Bay is 
an annual inundation of thofe fifh, which cover the 
fhores in fuch quantities as to become a nufance”. 
We find them again in the feas of Kamtzchatka, 
and poffibly they reach Fapan ; for Kempfer men- 
tions, in his account of the fifh of that country, 
fome that are congenerous. 
The great winter rendezvous of the herring is 
within the Aréfic circle: there they continue for 
many months in order to recruit themfelves after 
the faticue of fpawning, the feas within that fpace 
{warming with infect food, in a degree far greater 
than in our warmer latitudes. 
This mighty army begins to put itfelf in motion 
in the fpring; we diftinguifh this vaft body by that 
name, for the word herring is derived from the Ger- 
man, Heer, an army, to expreis their numbers. 
They begin to appear off the Shetland ifles in April 
and May, thefe are only forerunners of the grand 
fhoal which comes in uve, and their appearance is 
marked by certain figns by the numbers of birds, 
fuch as gannets, and others which follow to prey 
on them: but when the main body approaches, its 
breadth and its depth is fuch as to alter the appear- 
ance of the very ocean. It is divided into diftiné& 
columns of five or fix miles in length, and three or 
four in breadth, and they drive thé water before 
‘them with a kind of rippling: fometimes they fink 
for the fpace of ten or fifteen minutes, then rife 
* Catefoy Carol. iis xxxiii. 
Ts |. again 
Migrae 
tions. 
