106 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
and the flounder, annually quit the ocean, and come up 
pur rivers to deposit their spawn. This seems the most 
important business of their lives ; and there is no danger 
which they will not encounter, even to the surmounting 
precipices, to lind a proper place for the deposition of their 
future offspring. The salmon, upon these occasions, is seen 
to ascend rivers five hundred miles front the sea, and to 
brave, not only the dangers of various enemies, but also to 
spring up cataracts as high as a house. As soon as they 
come to the bottom of the torrent, they seem disappointed 
to meet the obstruction, and swim some paces back ; they 
then take a view of the danger that lies before them, survey 
it motionless for some minutes, advance, and again retreat"; 
till at last, summoning up all their force, they take a leap 
from the bottom, their body straight, and strongly in motion ; 
and thus most frequently clear every obstruction. It some- 
times happens, however, that they want strength to make 
the leap ; and then, in our fisheries, they are taken in their 
descent. 
But the length of the voyage performed by these fishes 
is short, if compared to what is annually undertaken by 
some tribes that constantly reside in the ocean. Of this 
kind are the cod, the haddock, the whiting, the mackerel, 
the tunny, the herring, and the pilchard. 
The power ot increasing in these animals exceeds our 
idea, as it would, in a very short lime, outstrip all calcula- 
tion : and a single herring, if suffered to multiply unmo- 
lested and undiminished for twenty years, would" shew a 
progeny greater in bulk than ten such globes as that we 
live upon. Although the usual way with spinous fishes is 
to produce by spawn, yet there are some, such as the eel and 
the blenny, that are known to bring forth their youno alive. 
With respect to the growth of fishes, it is observed, that 
among carps particularly, the first year they grow to about 
the size of the leaf of a willow tree ; at two years they are 
about four inches long. They grow but one inch more the 
third season, which makes five inches. Those of four years 
old are about six inches; and seven after the fifth. From 
that to eight years old they are found to be larger in pro- 
portion to the goodness of the pond, from ejg>ht to twelve 
inches. "With regard to sea-fish, the fisheri^en assure us, 
that a fish must be six years old before it is fit to be served 
up to table. They instance it in the growth of a mackerel. 
They assure us that those of a year old are as laro-e as one’s 
finger ; and those of two years are about twice that length ; 
at three and four years, they are that small kind of mackerel 
