206 



THE BLACK SEA. 



ral excitement, with the fishing population ; the 

 Pilchard fishery on our Cornish coasts is something 

 like it, in a quiet sort of way. The Tunny is 

 taken about Sicily and the Mediterranean generally 

 the whole summer through, but then these are 

 usually full-sized fishes, and it is very probable that 

 the duty of performing the Black Sea pilgrimage 

 is felt up to a certain time of life only. In the 

 autumn the shoals return again. The fishermen 

 maintain that these shoals are composed of fishes 

 of the same year : the uniformity of size is cer- 

 tainly very striking. Still more, they profess to 

 know the shoals as they pass back again, and can 

 tell how much the fish have gained in weight in 

 the course of the summer. As with birds, so with 

 fishes — some migrate locally, some to remote re- 

 gions. The distance from the Straits of Gibraltar 

 to the Sea of Azof is not less than 2800 miles. 

 Such is the migration of the Tunnies. Man looks 

 out for them at every point along their course as 

 they go ; and as they return they are the food of 

 countless thousands of the Mediterranean popula- 

 tions. As they pass into the Black Sea the Dolphins 

 and predaceous fish which have followed them 

 along their whole course, still pursue them, flocks of 

 sea-birds hover over them; yet the living stream 

 flows on, age after age, and seemingly with undi- 

 minished fulness. 



The Sword Fish is taken in great numbers in the 

 bay of Constantinople. 



