INTRODUCTION. 
Xlii 
Certain it is, however, that the deeps of the frozen zone are 
the great receptacle whence the finny tribes iffue, in fo wonder- 
ful a profufion, to reftock all the watery world of the northern 
hemifphere ; and that this immenfe icy protuberance of the 
globe, this gathering together, this hoard of congealed waters, 
is periodically diminifiied by the influence of the unfetting fum- 
mer’s fun, whofe rays being perpetually, though obliquely, {bed, 
during that feafon, on the widely extended rim of the frozen 
continent, gradually diflblvc its margin, which is thus crumbled 
into innumerable floating ifles, that are driven fouthward to re- 
plenifli the feas of warmer climes. * 
Amidfl: thefe drifts of ice, and following this widely fpread- 
ing current, teeming with life, the whole hoft of fea>fowl find in 
the waters an inexhauftible fupply of food : for the great move- 
ment, the immenfe fouthward migration of fifties is then begun, 
and flioal after flioal, probably as the removal of their dark icy 
canopy unveils them to the fun, are invited forth, and, guided 
by its light and heat, poured forward in thoufands of myriads, 
in multitudes which fet all calculation at defiance. The flocks 
of fea birds, for their numbers, baffle the power of figures ; "j* 
but the fwarms of fifties, as if engendered in the clouds, and 
ftiowered down like the rain, are multiplied in an incomprehen- 
fible degree ; they may indeed be called infinite, if infinity were 
applicable to any thing created. Of all thefe various tribes of 
fifties, thus prefling forward on their fouthern route, that of the 
Herring is the mofl: numerous. Clofely embodied in refplendent 
Columns of many miles in length and breadth, and in depth from 
the furface to the bottom of the fea, the ftioals of this tribe peace- 
fully glide along, and glittering like a huge refledfed rainbow, 
* The same happens in the southern hemisphere by the melting of 
the ice at the south pole. 
f A bird may lay ten eggs and hatch them ; but the roe of a herring 
is said to contain ten thousand. 
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