_Clafs IV. Hi El) Bi RL. La NG. 287 
feafon of their appearance among us was very late, 
never before the latter end of November: their con- 
tinuance till February. 
Were we inclined to confider this partial migra- 
tion of the herring in a moral light, we might re- 
fiect with veneration and awe on the mighty Power 
which originally impreffed on this moft ufeful body 
of his creatures, the inftinét that direéts and points 
out the courfe, that bleffes and enriches thefe 
iflands, which caufes them at certain and invariable 
times to quit the vaft polar deeps, and offer them- 
felves to our expecting fleets. That benevolent Be- 
ing has never, from the earlieft records, been once 
known to withdraw this bleffling from the whole, 
tho’ he often thinks proper to deny it to particulars ; 
yet this partial failure (for which we fee no natural 
reafon) fhould fill us with the moft exalted and 
erateful fenfe of his Providence, for impreffing fo 
invariable and general inftinct on thefe fith towards 
a fouthward migration, when the whole is to be be- 
nefited, and to withdraw it only when a minute part 
is to fuffer. 
This inftinct was given them, that they might re- 
move for the fake of depofiting their fpawn in warm- 
er feas, that would mature and vivify it more af- 
_furedly than thofe of the frigid zone. It is not from 
defect of food that they fet themfelves in motion, 
for they come tous full and fat, and on their return 
are almoft univertally obferved to be lean and mi- 
ferable. What their food is near the pole, we are 
not yet informed; but in our feas they feed much 
on the Onifcus Marinus, a cruftaceous infeét, and 
fometimes on their own fry. They 
Provi- 
dential 
infin, 
Spawn- 
ihge 
¥ood, 
