nish any analogy, on which we can build a solid argument for the existence of a future state; but yet there is something in the paternal feeling which it indicates, that, at least, forcibly recalls the promised blessing to the mind, and affords an agreeable illustration of the revealed truth. We can fancy the bird, borne by a secret impulse from the coming gloom and sterility of its native haunts, winging its way over sea and land, looking down with indifference on the placid expanse of the ocean, or rising far above its stormy waves; gliding, without the desire of rest or food, over flowery plains and wide-spread wastes, forests, lakes, and mountains; fixing its eager eye on the distant horizon; still onward-onward keeping its steady course; and giving no rest to its buoyant wings, or at least none except what Nature loudly demands, till it reaches the happy shore to which an unseen hand was guiding it, and a voice, unheard by the outward ear, was whispering all the while, "Behold the place of your rest.' All this, which every recurring year realizes, we can paint to ourselves, and we can see, in that wonderful flight, an emblem of the race of the pious Christian, who seeks his rest in heaven. The same unseen hand is guiding him from the storms of earth, the same unheard voice communicates inwardly with his conscious soul; with a similar desire he burns; with a corresponding eagerness he pants;-but his view is not bounded by a horizon of earth; his hopes are far, far beyond the regions of the sun: To the distant heavens he directs his anxious gaze; before him still he sees a radiant track, and knows the footmarks of his crucified Redeemer; dim in the distant sky, a shining spot appears; on that spot his anxious eye is fixed; it brightens and enlarges as he advances; one struggle more ;the ties which bound him to the world are broken; earth disappears; he enters the portals of heaven; he is in the arms of his Saviour; he is singing hosannahs with angels and blessed spirits before the throne of God !*

* [This train of remark seems to have been suggested by Moore's beautiful lines, beginning

"The bird let loose in Eastern skies." At any rate it strongly reminds us of them.-AM. ED.]

NINTH WEEK-MONDAY.

MIGRATION OF FISHES.

THERE is yet another class of migratory creatures, which we take notice of here, although their annual journeys are not so immediately connected with temperature, and the means of subsistence, as those we have already mentioned, and although these journeys do not properly belong to this season of the year; I allude to the inhabitants of the seas. There is indeed one analogy, by which these numerous classes are connected, in their change of place, with the migratory animals of the land—that of the instinct by which they seek for a fit place for the reproduction of the species. That this, is at least one of the laws which regulate the removals of birds and beasts, Dr. Jenner has very distinctly and ingeniously proved.* To whatever extent this may be the case with land animals, there can be no doubt, that such a law has a most powerful effect on those which glide through the waters of the great deep.

it

Of migratory fishes, the sturgeon, and its gigantic congener, the huso, are well known. This latter species is only to be found in the Caspian and Black Seas, and the rivers which flow into them. It enters the Don and Volga, in vast shoals, about the middle of winter, where spawns, and then returns to its usual places of summer resort. The prodigious fertility of this fish, may be judged of by the circumstance, that its eggs equal nearly a third of its whole weight; and Pallas, who gives an interesting account of the mode of fishing the huso, mentions one which weighed no less than 2800 lbs. Of these eggs the caviare is made, which is in great demand, as an article of food, among the Russians and Turks, and

* In a paper, published after his death, in the Philosophical Trans actions, for 1824.

on which the Greeks are said almost entirely to subsist, during their long fasts.

The codfish, the haddock, and the mackerel, are also different species of migratory fishes. The former of these, frequent shallows and sand-banks, between the fortieth and sixty-eighth degrees of north latitude, both in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and is taken in immense numbers, especially on the banks of Newfoundland. This fish makes for the coast at spawning time, which takes place about the end of winter. It is said by Leuwenhoek, that there are more than nine millions of eggs in a codfish of the middle size. What a bountiful provision for the numerous tribes of the broad ocean, which exist by devouring the fry, &c., as they rise to maturity!

But, of all the inhabitants of the ocean, the herring is the most valuable, as affording the greatest quantity both of profitable employment and of food to man. Three

thousand decked vessels, of different sizes, besides smaller boats, are stated to be employed in the herring fishery, with a proportionable number of seamen, besides many thousands of hands, who are, at certain seasons, employed in curing them. Of this fish, Kirby gives the following interesting account.

"The herring belongs to the tribe called abdominal fishes, or those whose ventral fins are behind the pectoral, and may be said to inhabit the Arctic Seas of Europe, Asia, and America, from whence they annually migrate, at different times, in search of food, and to deposit their spawn. Their shoals consist of millions of myriads, and are many leagues in width, many fathoms in thickness, and so dense, that the fishes touch each other; they are preceded, at the interval of some days, by insulated males. The largest and strongest are said to lead the shoals, which seem to move in a certain order, and to divide into bands as they proceed, visiting the shores of various islands and countries, and enriching their inhabitants. Their presence and progress are usually indicated by various sea birds, sharks, and other enemies. One of the cartilaginous fishes, the sea ape,* is

*Chimæra monstrosa.

said to accompany them constantly, and is thence called the king of the herrings. They throw off, also, a kind of oily or slimy substance, which extends over their columns, and is easily seen in calm weather. This substance, in gloomy, still nights, exhibits a phosphoric light, as if a cloth, a little luminous, were spread over the sea.

"Some conjecture may be made of the infinite number of these invaluable fishes, that are taken by European nations, from what Lacepede relates,-that, in Norway, 20,000,000 have been taken at a single fishing; that there are few years that they do not capture 400,000,000; and that, at Gottenburg, and its vicinity, 700,000,000 are annually taken. 'But what are these millions,' he remarks, 'to the incredible numbers that go to the share of the English, Dutch, and other European nations?'

"Migrations of these fishes are stated to take place at three different times; the first, when the ice begins to melt, which continues to the end of June; then succeeds that of summer, followed by the autumnal one, which lasts till the middle of September. They seek places for spawning, where stones and marine plants abound, against which they rub themselves, alternately, on each side, all the while moving their fins with great rapidity."*.

The instincts and habits of the finny tribes are necessarily less known than those of the inhabitants of the land, where their motions are constantly under the eye of man ; but all that we do know of them, proves that the same wonder-working and beneficent Power, which watches over, and so mysteriously guides, the living creation in the regions of earth and air, extends His government and His paternal care to the vast ocean; adapting the various natures of the creatures, with which He has so abundantly peopled it, with consummate wisdom, to the element in which they are destined to move; providing for their reproduction, their subsistence and their happiness, in a manner analogous to, and yet different from, that of the land tribes; and both, in their analogy and their difference, exhibiting a skill transcending all adequate expres

*

Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 113–115.

sion, and filling the mind with astonishment and awe. No wonder that the Psalmist, even with his comparatively limited knowledge, should express his admiration in this glowing strain :-" O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: The earth is full of Thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom Thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon Thee: that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season."

NINTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

CETACEOUS ANIMALS.*

Or the migratory inhabitants of the ocean, the most remarkable is that class of which the whale is the chief. As there are animals of a low grade, which, by their structure and amphibious habits, seem intended, by the Author of Nature, to form the link between the denizens of the land and of the sea, so it has pleased Providence to place at the top of the scale of creatures whose "home is in the deep," a gigantic race, so nearly allied to the inhabitants of the land, that many naturalists have denied it the name of fish, and have bestowed on it the somewhat awkward appellation of "beast of the ocean." Animals of this genus resemble quadrupeds, indeed, as to their structure, in many striking particulars. Like quadrupeds, they have lungs, a stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, and bladder. Like quadrupeds, too, they have a heart, with its partitions, driving warm and red blood in circulation through the body; they breathe the air; they are viviparous; and they suckle their young. Their

* For a great part of this paper, I have to acknowledge my obligations to Dr. Bushnan, the intelligent author of the Introduction to the Study of Nature.'