so that the Ocean would have been represented as à vast fluid issuing from each Pole to make the circuit of the Globe, and forming on its shores a multitude of counter-currents and counter-tides, all dependant on the effusions of one Pole singly. I should have employed for this purpose the best authenicated mariné Journals.

It would the have been evidently clear that the bays of Continents and even of islands are sheltered from the gene. ral Currents; and I would have demonstrated, on the contrary, that the course and the direction of all rivers are adapted to those Currents and those tides of the Ocean, in order to accelerate them in certain places and to retard them in others, just as the course of brooks and rivulets is itself adapted to the current of rivers, and for the same end.

I would have done more; in order to vindicate Geography from the charge of dryness, and to unite the graces which all the kingdoms of Nature communicate to each other, instead of arrows I should have illustrated my subJect by figures more analogous to those Seas, and have added new proofs to the theory of those polar effusions, by a representation of several species of fishes of passage, which at certain seasons of the year resign themselves to their currents, in order to pass from the one Hemisphere to the other te

This much is certain, that the principal point of their union, as well from the one pole as from the other, precisely is at the strait formed by Guinea and Brasil, where, as has been said, are formed those two great lateral counter-cur fents which return toward the Polés. There is the rendezvous of the fishes from the North Pole, and from the South. Herrings, whales, and mackerel, are in Summer found in great abundance on those shores. The whales of the North have formerly been so comnion at Brasil, that according to the report of Navigators, the fishery on its coast's was farmed out, and produced a considerable revenue to the King of

Portugal.

Portugal. I know not how it may be at present: perhaps the noise of European artillery, may have chased them away from those coasts. A very productive cod-fishery was likewise carried on there, know all over America by the name of the Brasil cod.

On the other hand, according to the testimony of Bosman, a Dutch Navigator, who has published a very good account of Guinea, the whales of that species which is called Northcaper are found in great abundance on the coasts of Guinea. He alleges that they resort thither to bring forth their young Artus has favoured us with a catalogue of the fishes of passage which appear on that coast during the different months of the year. Though it is very imperfect, we are enabled by it to distinguish the fishes which are peculiar to each Pole. In the months > of April and May it is a species of ray which rises to the surface of the water; in June and July a sort of herring, in such quantities that the Negroes, on throwing among them a simple leaden weight at the extremity of a longline furnished with hooks, always draw up a considerable number at every throw. During the same months they catch a great many lobsters, similar, says Artus, to those of Norway.

In September innumerable legions and various species of mackarel arrive there. At that season too appears a kind of mullet, which, unlike all other fishes, who delight in silence, flock to noise. The Negroes avail them-* selves of this instinct as a means of catching them. They tie to a piece of wood surrounded with hooks a sort of cornet with it's clapper; thus furnished it is thrown into the sea; and the motion of the waves tossing about the cornet produces a certain noise, which attracts the fish in question, so that in attempting to lay hold of the piece of wood, they are themselves caught. Kind Nature accordingly thus furnishes to the poor Negroes a fishery adapted to their capacity and industry. This VOL. I.

species

species of mullet appears from it's instinct destined to travel through turbulent seas and at noisy seasons, for he is visible only about the autumnal Equinox at the revolution of the seasons. But in the months of October and November those shores are crouded with fishes whose names and manners are unknown to Europe, and which seem to appertain to the South Pole, whose Currents are then in a state of activity. Such are a sea-pike or jack, the teeth of which are extremely sharp and the bite very dangerous: a species of salmon with white flesh and of an exquisite flavour: another called the star of the sea, a species of sea-dog, which has a very large head and throat in form of a warming pan; it is marked on the back with a cross: some of them grow to such a size, that a single one is sufficient to load two or three canoes. In December arrive vast quantities of the korkofedo or moon-fish; they appear likewise in June. The korkofedo seems to regulate his progress by the solstices. He is as broad as long, and is caught by a bit of sugar-cane fixed on a hook. The appetite which this fish has for the sugar-cane is another proof of the harmonies established between fishes and vege tables. Finally, in the months of January, February, and March, may be seen on the coast of Guinea a species of small fish, with large eyes,, which Artus supposes to be the oculus, or piscis oculatus (eyed-fish) of Pliny. This too is an inhabitant of the boisterous equinoctial Seas, for he frisks and jumps about with a great deal of

noise.

Had time permitted I would have extended these elementary concords to the different inhabitants of the departments of the Ocean. We should have seen, for example, the cause of the alternate transition of turtles, which for six months of the year take up their abode in certain islands, and which are found again six months after in other islands, seven or eight hundred leagues distant, putting it beyond the power of imagination to

conceive

conceive how an amphibious animal so sluggish and un- › wieldy should be able to make a passage so immense toward places which it is impossible she should perceive. We should have seen their heavy-sailing squadrons committing themselves almost without motion in the night time, to the general Current of the Ocean, coasting by moon light the gloomy promontories of Islands, and seeking in their deserted creeks some sandy and tranquil bank, where far from din they may undisturbedly deposit their eggs.

Others, such as the mackarel, never fail to arrive at the accustomed season on other shores, conveyed by the same Currents, because then they are blind. "When "the mackarel come to the coasts of Canada," says Denis, formerly Governor of that country, "they have not the "least glimmering of sight. They have a speck on their "eyes which does not fall off till toward the end of June; "thenceforward they see and are caught by the line.' His testimony is confirmed by other Navigators, though there was no necessity for it.

Other fishes, such as herrings, expose their silvery legions to glitter in the Sun on the northern strands of Europe and America, shaded with firs, and advance forward and forward till they reach even the palm groves of the Line, forcing their way along the shores, in opposition to the tides of the South, which are continually supplying them with fresh pasture.

Others, as the thunny, make their way by favour of those very tides, and enter in the Spring into the Mediterranean, of which they make a complete circuit; and though they leave no trace on their watery way, they do not fail to render themselves visible in the darkest night, by means of the phosphoric lights which their motion excites. It is by those same gleams of light that we per

*Natural History of North-America, chap. ii.

ceive in the night-time the turtle with their dusky colour, on the surface of the waters. You would imagine that these animals, surrounded by light, had flambeaus affixed to their fins and tails. The phosphoric qualities accord→ ingly of the sea-water are in unison even with the nocturn. al voyages of fishes.

The Sun is the grand mover in all these harmonies. Arrived at the Equinox, he abandons one Pole to Winter, and gives to the other the signal of Spring, by the fires with which he environs it. The heated Pole pours out in every direction torrents of water and of melted ices into the Ocean, to which it supplies new sources. The Ocean then changes it's course; it draws into it's general Current most of the fishes of the North toward the South ; and by it's lateral counter-currents, those of the South toward the North. It attracts others even from the Continent, by the illuvions of the land which the rivers discharge; such are the fishes with scales, as salmon, which love, in general, to make their way upward against the course of rivers.

These floating legions are attended by innumerable cohorts of sea-fowls, which quit their natural climates, and hover around the fishes, to live at their expense. It is then that we find the sea-fowls of the South flocking to the shores of the North, as the pelican, the flamingo, the heron, the stork; and those of the North finding their way to the South, as the lomb, the burgomaster, the cormorant, It is then that sands and shallows the most deserted, are crouded with inhabitants, and that Nature presents new harmonies on every shore.

If the voyages of the inhabitants of the Seas would have diffused new light on the Currents of the Ocean, these same Currents would have furnished us with new light respecting the forms and manners of fishes, which have to us such an uncouth appearance. Most of these fishes cast their spawn in such abundance, that the Sea is frequently covered