the Jerking, 
27$ 
Genxjs LVI — Ihe Herring *. 
Many of the fifties of this germs are well known. Some 
of them, fuch as the herring and pilchard, conftitute a 
larger portion of the fpod of the human race, than per- 
haps any fiih whatever. The herring filhery, which 
forms fo confiderable a branch of commerce to the Eng- 
lijh, Dutch, and other nations of the north of Europe, is 
a modern invention. Thofe myriads of fifli which an- 
nually teem from the Artie Seas , and which are the ob- 
jects of this fiHiery, are fuppofed to have been altogether 
unknown to the ancients ; for there is no word which 
feems to have been appropriated to this mod numerous 
fpecies. 
The external characters of the herring are fo well 
known, that all defeription of them would be fuperfluous. 
The grand winter refidepce pf this fiih is within the artic 
circle, where infect food abounds in a ftill greater degree 
than in warm climes. The particular food, however, of 
thefe fifties has not yet been perfectly alcertained : The 
inteftines are filled commonly with a blackilh mud, ap- 
parently too much digefted to difeover exactly its nature ; 
it is fuppofed to he a cruftaceous infect f. 
From the Artic Seas, the herrings annually migrate 
along the fliores of America, as far as Carolina J ; along 
thofa 
* Clupea Harengus, Ian. Syft. Herring, Will. 
| Onifcus Marir.us, Lin. \ Catelby Carolina, II. 33* 
