io6 NATURAL HI S T O R Y of N R WA T. 



u head has no free motion. If I was to draw any concluiions 



u from their form, I fhould think that there wanted every 



" neceifary to fupport life'; yet, with fo few external parts, 



" they are more active, quicker, and more ingenious, than if 



u they had many hands and feet. They know fo well how to 



" ufe their tails and fins, that they fhoot forward like an arrow 



<c from the bow, and rather fly than fwim. Fifh devour one 



Ci another continually ; how, therefore, it might be alked, can 



" thefe inhabitants of the water fubfift ! But here God's provi- 



" dence has allotted means, and orders it thus, that their 



" breed and encreafe mall be wonderfully great, and that their 



" fruitfulnefs fhall by much exceed their neceffity of devouring 



" each other ; fo that thofe which are eaten by others, are always 



" very fhort of thofe which arife from the next brood *. When 



" I confider how the fmall Fiih efcape from the large, by whom 



" they are looked upon as a prey belonging to them, to hunt 



" as they pleafe, I fee the weak are much the nimbler ; and are 



<c always prepared to fly in places where the water is Co fhallow, as 



(i not to allow the large to follow them; lb it feems that the 



Ci Creator has made up for their weaknefs by giving them {o 



Ci much circumfpeclion. How comes it that Fifh can live, and 



" even be lb healthy and fo well in fuch waters, that I could 



a not bear a drop of in my mouth ? How do they, in the midft 



u of fait, preferve their flefh from tafting of it ? How comes 



u it that the beft and fitteft Fifh for the uie of mankind 



u approach the fhore, and, as it were, offer themfelves to our . 



Cc wants ; when, on the contrary, others, that are not fo uieful, 



a keep farther offf ? Why do Herrings, Mackarel, &c. all 



" which, in the time of their increaie and growth, live in un- 



u known places, at certain feaibns appear in our leas about the 



" coafts, as if to offer themfelves to the Fifhermen, and even throw 



f< them4lves into the nets, and on the hooks ? Why do many 



u Filh, as the Lax, Oreder, Aal, 5Cc. crowd themfelves in 



* For that reafon there are but few Sea-animals, as the Whale, Porpoife, and 

 Grampus, that, according to the manner of land-animals, bring forth their young 

 alive •, the moft are oviparous, or fuch as breed from fpawn : and contrary to Birds, 

 which lay annually in each neft a few eggs, each of thefe has annually many iooo 

 eggs to call on the bottom of the fea. The author of Biblioth. Britannique, T. xix. 

 P. i. p. 177. is not entirely of Mr. Rollin's opinion in this refped, with regard to 

 •God's providence and immediate defign. 



t In this the glory of God's providence is moft remarkable ; we fee each Fifh. in its 

 kind has, at certain fix'd feafons of the year, a particular inclination to approach the 

 land ; and this always at a time when they are the fatteft, and not emaciated by 

 breeding : as the Salmon in the Spring, Mackarel after Midfummer., Herrings in the 

 Autumn, Cod in the Winter, &c. 



" heaps 



