The select works of Antony van Leeuwenhoek; containing his microscopical discoveries in many of the works of nature - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1816 edition. Excerpt: ...begin to lay their eggs or spawn, are not a year old, and that the greater part of those Herrings, which are found on these coasts in any one year, depofite, the eggs fromwhence issue all ( 16 ). the Herrings caught in the succeeding-year, (for if it were not so, there would certainly be found in the shoal some Herrings much larger than others, as we may observe in all kinds of fish which have scales); we-may from thence draw this conclufion, that when Herrings have depofited their spawn, they do immediately, or in a very short time afterwards, quit these seas, and never return thither. About twenty years ago, I heard a story of an uncommon large Herring, which was to be seen in our town, and, for the novelty of the thing, was givena present to a company of great personages at a public dinner. This Herring, I think, very probably had wandered from the shoal, or had by some means been detained in our sea. If then, we observe that in the sea adjoining to us, no Herrings-are found which are more than a year old, and that they then entirely quit our coasts, and none of them are caught the following year; who can assign any other reason for this, than that Herrings, when grown large, require more food for their growth and sustenance than they can get in our seas, and therefore they migrate, or resort to those places where they find a greater or more solid supply of food. To conclude, the secrets of Nature, respecting fishes in the sea, as well in regard to-their sresorting to certain places, as in their de-' parture from thence, cannot be investigated with any precifion: for instance, what shall we say of the fish called the Shad, (in Dutch for those fish, when the time of their propagation is at hand, are found in our rivers; but When that time is...