106 NATURAL H I S T O R Y of N R WA Y. 



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

 cc from their form, I Ihould think that there wanted every 

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

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

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

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

 a from the bow, and rather fly than fwim, Fifh devour one 

 H another continually ; how, therefore, it might be aiked, 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 fhall be wonderfully great, and that their 

 i\ 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 Fifh efcape from the large, by whom 

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

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

 iC always prepared to fly in places where the water is fb fhallow, as 

 " not to allow the large to follow them; fb it feems that the 

 u Creator has made up for their weaknefs by giving them fb 

 £c much circumfpefiion. How comes it that Fifh can live, and 

 " even be fb 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 

 " of fait, preferve their flefh from tailing of it? How comes 

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

 6c approach the fhore, and, as it were, offer themfelves to our 

 Cc wants; when, on the contrary, others, that are not fb ufeful, 

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

 '* which, in the time of their increafe and growth, live in un- 

 " known places, at certain feafons appear in our feas about the 

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

 i c themfelves into the nets, and on the hooks ? Why do many 

 « Fifli, as the Lax, Oreder, Aal, &c. crowd themfelves in 



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

 Grampus, that, • according to the manner of lartd-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 

 eo-gs to caft 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 refpeft, with regard to 

 God's providence and immediate defign. 



f In this the glory of God's providence is moft remarkable ; we fee each Fifh in its 

 kind has, at cerSin 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 



