tion, and gave every possible intimation of extreme agony. For a length of time, she continued thus to act, though closely pursued by the boats; and, inspired with courage and resolution, by her concern for her offspring, seemed regardless of the danger that surrounded her. At length one of the boats approached so near, that a harpoon was hove at her; it hit, but did not attach itself. A second harpoon was struck; this also failed to penetrate; but a third was more effectual, and held. Still she did not attempt to escape, but allowed other boats to approach; so that, in a few minutes, three more harpoons were fastened; and, in the course of an hour afterwards, she was killed."

There is something exceedingly interesting in the fact, that, in these monsters of the ocean, the hand of the Creator has placed the same kindly and disinterested affections, which ennoble the most exalted of his creatures who tread the solid land, and claim kindred with hea

ven.

NINTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

MIGRATION OF FISHES FROM THE SEA INTO RIVERS.

WITH regard to the tenants of the ocean which periodically find their way into the fresh water, for the purpose of spawning, Mr Kirby gives the following interesting notices :

:

"The next tribe of migratory fishes is one whose several species are intermediate between marine and fresh water fishes, roving, indifferently, in the sea, and rivers, and lakes, which thus is fitted, by Providence, to make up to the inhabitants of inland countries, their distance from the other migrators, by a supply, brought, as it were, to their very doors. The fishes in question, belong, like the herrings, to the abdominal class, and form the salmon genus, including the salmon, the salmon

trout, the trout, the grayling, the char, the smelt, the hucho, and many other species. I shall, however, confine my observations principally to the king, as it may be called, of the river migrators,—the salmon. In our own country this noble fish is too high priced to form a general article of food, and be reckoned among the may luxuries of the rich man's table; but in others, especially amongst some of the North-western American tribes, they are gifts of Providence, which form their principal food at all seasons. One of these tribes, which Sir George Mackenzie fell in with, in his journey from Canada to the Pacific, were perfect ichthyophagites, and would touch no other animal food.

"The salmon, indeed, frequents every sea, the Arctic as well as the Equatorial; and it is found even in great lakes and inland seas, as the Caspian, into which it is even affirmed to make its way by a subterranean channel from the Persian Gulf;* it goes as far south as New Holland and the Australian Seas; but it is said never to have been found in the Mediterranean, and appears to have been unknown to Aristotle. Pliny mentions it as a river fish, preferred to all marine ones by the inhabitants of Gaul. It traverses the whole length of the largest rivers. It reaches Bohemia by the Elbe, Switzerland by the Rhine, and the Cordilleras of America by the mighty Maragnon, or river of the Amazons, whose course is nearly 3000 miles. In temperate climates, the salmon quits the seas early in spring, when the waves are driven by a strong wind against the river currents. It enters the rivers of France, in the beginning of the autumn-in September; and in Kamtschatka and North America still later.

66

They rush into rivers that are freest from ice, or where they are carried by the highest tide, favoured by the wind; they prefer those streams that are most

* It is somewhat surprising to see this ridiculous fable gravely mentioned even as a report, by so judicious a naturalist as Mr Kirby.-H. D.

shaded.

They leave the sea in numerous bands, formed with great regularity. The largest individual, which is generally a female, takes the lead, and is followed by others of the same sex, two and two, each pair being at the distance of from three to six feet from the preceding one; next come the old, and after them the young males, in the same order.

"The noise they make in their transit, heard from a distance, sounds like a far-off storm. In the heat of the sun, and in tempests, they keep near the bottom; at other times, they swim a little below the surface. In fair weather they move slowly, sporting as they go, at the surface, and wandering again and again from their direct route; but, when alarmed, they dart forward with such rapidity that the eye can scarcely follow them. They employ only three months in ascending to the sources of the Maragnon, the current of which is remarkably rapid,-which is at the rate of nearly forty miles a-day; in a smooth stream, or lake, their progress would increase in a fourfold ratio. Their tail is a very powerful organ, and its muscles have wonderful energy; by placing it in their mouth, they make of it a very elastic spring; for, letting it go with violence, they raise themselves in the air to the height of from twelve to fifteen feet, and so clear the cataract which impedes their course; if they fail in their first attempt, they continue their efforts till they have accomplished it.* female is said to hollow out a long and deep excavation in the gravelly bed of the river, to receive her spawn, and, when deposited, to cover it up; but this admits of some doubt.

The

"Among the migrations of fishes, I must not neglect those which take place in consequence of the water in the ponds or pools that they inhabit being dried up.

If it be true that the salmon which frequents the waters of the Maragnon can clear a cataract of fifteen feet in height, in the manner stated by Mr Kirby, it must be a much more powerful and active fish than the species found in the British rivers.-H. D.

and prove,

that

Some of these are very extraordinary, when the Creator gave being to these animals, he foresaw the circumstances in which they would be placed, and mercifully provided them with the means of escape from dangers to which they would be necessarily exposed.

"In very dry summers, the fishes that inhabit the above situations, are reduced often to the last extremities, and endeavour to relieve themselves, by plunging, first their heads, and afterwards their whole bodies, in the mud, to a considerable depth.

*

*

“But others, when reduced to this extremity, desert their native pool, and travel in search of another that is better supplied with water. This has long been known of eels, which wind, by night, through the grass, in search of water, when so circumstanced. Dr Hancock, in the Zoological Journal, gives an account of a species of fish, called, by the Indians, the flat-head hassar, and belonging to a genus of the family of the Siluridans, which is instructed by its Creator, when the pools in which they commonly reside, in very dry seasons, lose their water, to take the resolution of marching by land, in search of others in which the water is not evaporated. These fish, which grow to the length of a foot, travel in large droves with this view; they move by night, and their motion is said to be like that of the two-footed lizard. A strong serrated arm constitutes the first ray of its pectoral fin. Using this as a kind of foot, it should seem, they push themselves forward, by means of their elastic tail, moving nearly as fast as a man will leisurely walk. The strong plates which envelope their body, probably facilitate their progress, in the same manner as those under the body of serpents, which, in some degree, perform the office of feet. It is affirmed by the Indians, that they are furnished with an internal supply of water, sufficient for their journey."

*

* Doras. † Bipes.

*

*

Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 116-122.

Mr Kirby mentions some other tribes of migrating fishes; and, among these, one found in Tranquebar, by Daldorff, which not only creeps upon the shore, but even climbs the fan-palm, in pursuit of certain crustaceans which form its food. Its structure is admirably adapted to this extraordinary instinct. The lobes of its gillcovers are so divided and armed, as to be employed together or separately, as hands, for the suspension of the animal, till, by unsheathing its dorsal and anal fins,which at other times it folds up into the cavity of its body, and, fixing them in the bark, it prepares to take another step.

How curious are these contrivances, and how varied the resources of the Author of Nature! The instances now mentioned, however, are, in reality, no more worthy of attention than the instincts of those animals with which we are most familiar. We are only more surprised and impressed with them on account of their peculiarity. The hand of a wonder-working God is everywhere.

NINTH WEEK-THURSDAY.

MIGRATION OF EELS.

THE following observations of Sir Humphrey Davy, in his "Salmonia," on the migration of eels, are too curious to be omitted:

"There are two migrations of eels, one from, and the other to, the sea: the first in spring and summer; the second in autumn, or early in winter :-the first, of very small eels, which are sometimes not more than two, or two and a-half inches long; the second, of large eels, which sometimes are three or four feet long, and weigh from ten to fifteen, or even twenty pounds. There is great reason to believe, that all eels found in fresh water