UC-NRLF 
 
4.0CKED 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
BEITISH 
 FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
BEITISH 
 
 EISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 j Har*Ko U/ 
 
 LONDON: 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; 
 
 Instituted 1799. 
 
BIOLOGY 
 
BIOLOGY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 THE GENERAL PREVALENCE OF FISHES AS THE FOOD 
 
 OF MAN ? 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BRITISH FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE ... 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FISHES WITH THE RAYS OF THE DORSAL FIN SPINOUS 52 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FISHES WITH SOFT FIN-RAYS, AND THE VENTRAL 
 
 FINS REMOTE FROM THE PECTORAL .... 89 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FISHES WITH SOFT FIN-RAYS, AND THE VENTRAL 
 
 FINS DIRECTLY BENEATH THE PECTORAL . . .142 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Page 
 
 FISHES WITHOUT VENTRAL FINS 161 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 $A.RT1LAGINOUS FISHES . . 174 
 
BEITISH 
 FISH AND FISHEEIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE GENERAL PREVALENCE OF FISHES AS THE 
 FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 THE use offish as an article of food is of remote 
 antiquity. The Israelites, in their journey 
 through the wilderness, whea pressed by scar- 
 city of provisions, exclaimed, " We remember 
 the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the 
 cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and 
 the onions, and the garlic ;" and it is recorded, 
 that among the plagues brought upon the Egyp- 
 tians by Moses and Aaron, at the command of 
 God, one was the turning of the water of the 
 river Nile into blood, and the consequent de- 
 struction of the fish, Exod. vii. 19-21. 
 
 The effects of this destruction were severely 
 
8 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 felt, for fish formed an important part of the 
 diet of the ancient inhabitants of Egypt. 
 Among their paintings, not only fish-ponds in 
 gardens are depicted, with the fish swimming 
 about, but also representations of fishermen, 
 some employed in using nets,* others, lines and 
 hooks. Spears, as pictorial representations 
 show, were also employed, and to these weapons 
 we find an allusion in the book of Job, xli. 7. 
 The mosaic pavement of Praeneste exhibits also 
 a mode of taking fish in weirs, decoys, or toils, 
 made of hurdles of reeds, winding in various 
 directions, so as to entrap the fish, which are 
 taken out by means of baskets or nets ; see also 
 Isaiah xix. 8-10. 
 
 Fish, according to Herodotus, were eaten by 
 the Egyptians like ducks and quails, both salted 
 or pickled, and also dried in the sun, without 
 any other preparation. From some motive or 
 other, however, the priests were prohibited 
 from the use of fish as food, and in the cata- 
 combs of Abousir, according to Abdallatif, (an 
 Arabian writer of the twelfth century,) among 
 the remains of other animals those of small fish 
 were found, f 
 
 * See the use made by the inhabitants of the low marshes of 
 Egypt of nets, namely, to take fish by day, to serve as mosquito 
 curtains at night. Heredotus ; Euterpe. 
 
 t See De Sacey's Translation, p. 201. 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 9 
 
 With regard to the fish kept by the ancient 
 Egyptians in small ornamental ponds, as their 
 paintings show to have been a general custom, 
 it is probable they were consecrated, or held 
 sacred ; such a practice, at least, appears to 
 have prevailed in the east from an early period, 
 and is, perhaps, not yet exploded. " Sir John 
 Chardin twice mentions fishes reputed to be 
 sacred at this day in the east. In his third 
 volume, he tells us, * that at a town called 
 Comicha, he found, in the courtyard of a mosque, 
 two reservoirs, or basins of water, twenty paces 
 from each other, full of fishes, some of which 
 had rings of brass, some of silver, others of 
 gold/ i I apprehended, 7 he says, ' that these 
 fish had the rings in their nostrils, by way of 
 ornament ; but I was informed that it was in 
 token of their being consecrated. None dared 
 to take them ; such a sacrilege was supposed 
 to draw after it the vengeance of the saint to 
 whom they were consecrated ; and his votaries, 
 not contented to leave them to his resentment, 
 took upon themselves to punish the transgres- 
 sors. An Armenian Christian, who had ven- 
 tured to take some of these sacred fish, was 
 killed upon the spot by one of them.' This is a 
 relic of ancient superstition. Dr. Richard 
 Chandler, in his Travels in Asia Minor, gives a 
 
 A2 
 
10 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 note from j^Elian, who speaks of tame fishes, that 
 wore gold necklaces and ear-rings, in a clear 
 fountain, belonging to the military Jupiter." 
 
 That there were sacred fishes among the 
 ancient Egyptians is proved, not only by their 
 mummies found in catacombs of Abousir, but 
 by their representations on the sculptured 
 monuments, with those of other animals to 
 which idolatrous veneration was paid ; and 
 hence it might be, that though fishes were 
 allowed as food to the common people, the 
 priests abstained from them, lest their purity 
 should be endangered. Other sacred animals 
 indeed they eat, (the head excepted,) but the 
 inconsistencies of their practice ought not to 
 surprise us. The following note in the Pictorial 
 Bible is not without interest, but it leaves the 
 subject open to conjecture : " Diodorus says, 
 that, from the time of the king Moeris, a great 
 body of men found continual occupation in 
 salting the fish caught in the lake dug by that 
 prince. Diodorus also describes the Nile as 
 abounding in fish, not only sufficient to supply 
 them with fresh fish, but to enable them to salt 
 large quantities for exportation, He adds, with 
 truth, that there was not in the world a river 
 more serviceable to mankind than the Nile. 
 The Egyptians are the first people whom history 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 11 
 
 mentions as curing any kind of meat with salt 
 for provisions. They used fossil salt, which 
 they got from the African deserts ; sea-salt, and 
 everything belonging to the sea, being abhorred 
 by them. The priests abstained even from the 
 fish of the Nile ; but whether because they 
 considered the natives of the river too sacred to 
 be eaten by them, or too impure from their 
 possible communication with the sea, authors 
 are not agreed. Clement of Alexandria gives 
 the former reason, and Plutarch the latter." 
 
 During their sojourn in Egypt, the Israelites 
 adopted, more or less completely, the customs 
 and even the superstitious rites of their masters, 
 and hence, after their deliverance, arose the 
 necessity of enjoining upon them a new code of 
 laws, in order to draw a line of distinction 
 between them and idolatrous nations. On this 
 principle, the Levitical dispensation descends to 
 the regulation of minutiae of high importance, 
 under the then existing circumstances. 
 
 Among these stringent laws are several 
 respecting' animals to be used or rejected as 
 food ; and we find that, though fishes generally 
 were not forbidden, (and perhaps under the 
 term fishes other aquatic creatures are included,) 
 those destitute of fins and scales were not to be 
 eaten. " And all that have not fins and scales 
 
12 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move 
 in the waters, and of any living thing which is 
 in the waters, they shall be an abomination 
 unto you," Lev. xi. 10. From this we infer 
 that shell-fish, as we term them, and other 
 aquatic mollusks, as well as smooth, slippery, 
 scaleless fishes, were prohibited ; and perhaps 
 the injunction more peculiarly applies to the 
 former than to real fishes, as we now restrict 
 the term. Be this as it may, fishes with scales 
 were decidedly allowed, and evidently constituted 
 a considerable portion of the food of the Israelites. 
 The lakes and rivers of Syria supplied them ; 
 and sea -fish from the Mediterranean were 
 brought to Jerusalem, and other cities and 
 towns of Palestine, by the Phosnician fishermen, 
 who traded even on the Sabbath, to its profana- 
 tion. " There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, 
 (in Judah,) which brought fish, and all manner 
 of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the 
 children of Judah, and in Jerusalem," Neh. 
 xiii. 16. What was the fate of Tyre, the great 
 and mighty city, "the daughter of Sidon," 
 which eclipsed its parent in splendour ? "It 
 shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the 
 midst of the sea," Ezek. xxvi. 5. Tyre was 
 insular, or rather peninsular, being united to 
 the mainland by the causeway of Alexander ; 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 13 
 
 crumbling ruins alone attest its grandeur ; a 
 few huts, chiefly inhabited by fishermen, con- 
 stitute the modern village of Tsour, (a rock,) 
 and it is literally a place where fishermen 
 spread their nets to dry. Volney, whose in- 
 fidelity was avowed, says, " The whole village 
 contains only fifty or sixty poor families, who 
 live but indifferently on the produce of their 
 little grounds, and a trifling fishery." 
 
 In Genesis xlviii. 16, Jacob, in giving his 
 blessing to Ephraim and Manasseh, says, "Let 
 them grow into a multitude as do fishes ; " * a 
 sentence rendered in our common translation, 
 " Let them grow into a multitude in the midst 
 of the earth." The appropriateness of the 
 comparison in the Hebrew is very striking, for 
 the fecundity of fishes is astonishing. The 
 most unceasing destruction by man, by birds, 
 and by their warfare upon each other, appears 
 not to diminish their multitudes ; yet, perhaps, 
 it is seldom the case that any individual of 
 their countless hordes dies a natural death of 
 old age it destroys, and is destroyed. To 
 counterbalance the loss there is a commen- 
 surate reproduction, and this and the havoc 
 keep pace with each other. The following 
 table from Harmer's paper on this subject, in 
 * Or, " Let them, as fishes do, increase." 
 
14 
 
 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the Phil. Trans., 1767, may serve to convey 
 some idea of the natural increase of fishes, and 
 the necessity of a counterbalancing havoc ; 
 shoAvirig how wisely the Almighty has adapted 
 the laws of existence to the great end to be 
 answered : 
 
 Fish. 
 
 Weight 
 of Fish 
 examined. 
 
 Weight 
 of Roe. 
 
 Number 
 of Eggs. 
 
 Date Of 
 
 Examination. 
 
 Carp 
 
 Codfish 
 Flounder 
 Herring 
 Mackerel 
 Perch 
 Pike 
 Roach 
 Smelt 
 Sole 
 Tench 
 
 ozs. grs. 
 25 5 
 
 Grains. 
 2,571 
 12,540 
 2,200 
 
 480 
 
 T '?Pi 
 
 7oa$ 
 5,100 
 361 
 149i 
 
 542J 
 
 203,109 
 3,686,760 
 1,357,400 
 36,960 
 546,681 
 28,323 
 49,304 
 81,586 
 38,278 
 100,362 
 383,252 
 
 April 4. 
 December 23. 
 March 14. 
 October 25. 
 June 18. 
 April 5. 
 April 25. 
 Mav 2. 
 March 21. 
 June 13. 
 May 28. 
 
 24 4 
 5 10 
 18 
 8 9 
 56 4 
 10 6 
 2 
 14 8 
 14 
 
 Mr. Yarrell observes, that " Bloch found six 
 hundred thousand ova (eggs) in the roe of a 
 female carp of nine pounds' weight ; and 
 Schneider, seven hundred thousand in a fish of 
 ten pounds' weight." 
 
 From the incidental comparison in the pas- 
 sage of Genesis, in question, we learn an in- 
 teresting fact that, from remote antiquity, the 
 habits of animals have attracted observation ; 
 and that, as respects fishes, their extraordinary 
 numerical increase was known even to the 
 patriarchs of old ; or rather, so generally as 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 15 
 
 to serve by way of a simile. Fishes were 
 among the subjects of natural history on which 
 Solomon is recorded to have written ; but his 
 writings on these things have not been pre- 
 served, probably because, not being of a cha- 
 racter exclusively sacred, they were excluded 
 from the archives of the priesthood. 
 
 At a far later period of the Jewish history 
 than that included in the Old Testament, the 
 use of fish as food was very prevalent ;* and 
 we find that, on several occasions, our Saviour 
 condescended to exercise his miraculous powers 
 upon these creatures, thereby demonstrating 
 that the laws of matter were subject to his 
 control. We may first allude to the two mira- 
 cles of the loaves and fishes. In both instances, 
 it was adjacent to the Lake of Tiberias, or 
 Gennesaret, also called the Sea of Galilee, (the 
 Bahr-el-Tabarieh of modern days,) that our 
 Saviour fed the hungering multitude. This 
 lake is from twelve to fifteen miles long, and 
 from six to nine wide, and is surrounded by 
 mountains and beautiful scenery. The water is 
 cool and clear, and at the present day abounds 
 with fish, while its borders are the resort of 
 innumerable water fowl. The course of the 
 
 * " If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, 
 will he give him a stone ? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish 
 give him a serpent ? " Luke xi. 11. 
 
16 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 Jordan may be distinctly traced by a smooth 
 current right through the centre of the lake. 
 
 The first of the two miracles referred to 
 occurred in a desert situation, where five 
 thousand men, besides women and children, 
 were collected to hear the words of life from 
 the lips of Him who " spake as one having 
 authority ; " and five loaves and two fishes not 
 only supplied them with sufficient food, but 
 even a superfluity : " They did all eat, and 
 were filled : and they took up of the fragments 
 that remained twelve baskets full." See 
 Matt. xiv. 17-20. 
 
 On the second occasion, four thousand men, 
 beside women and children, on whom the 
 Saviour had compassion, were fed with seven 
 loaves and a few small fishes, and of the 
 broken meat that was left were seven baskets 
 full. See Matt. xv. 32-39. 
 
 It was at Capernaum, on the borders of the 
 same lake, that our Saviour, in order to pro- 
 cure tribute money, (a didrachma, or about 
 fifteen pence per head,) again displayed his 
 miracfulous power, by commissioning a fish to 
 contribute to his necessities ; " for though he 
 was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, 
 that we, through his poverty, might be rich," 
 2 Cor. viii. 9. It was then that He di-- 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 17 
 
 rected Peter, saying, " Go thou to the sea, 
 and cast an hook, and take up the fish that 
 first cometh up ; and when thou has opened 
 his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money : 
 that take, and give unto them for me and 
 thee," Matt. xvii. 27. The money was a tetra- 
 drachmon, or stater, a double didrachma, (four 
 drachmae,) equivalent to the Hebrew shekel. 
 Thus, then, did our adorable Eedeemer set us 
 the example of rendering to Caesar the things 
 which are Caesar's ; even while he proved, by a 
 miracle, his Divine nature, as " the Christ, the 
 Son of God," and the Saviour of all who come 
 to Him by the leading of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Nor are these all the miracles which the 
 Redeemer wrought, bearing upon the scaly 
 tribes of the water. It was upon the same 
 lake that he directed the casting of the net, 
 which broke with the weight of the fish it 
 inclosed, such was the multitude captured, to 
 the astonishment of Simon Peter and his 
 partners, James and John, who were with him. 
 See Luke v. 111. The words of our Lord 
 on the occasion, " from henceforth thou shalt 
 catch men," show us at once the meaning which 
 was intended to be conveyed. These humble 
 fishers were hereafter to throw the net of the 
 gospel, which must ever be the work of their 
 
18 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 faithful successors ; and thus are they enjoined 
 to draw men from the depths of sin and de- 
 struction, to the glorious light of that revelation, 
 sent in mercy to beam upon the path which 
 leadeth to the kingdom of heaven, where He 
 who bore our sins in his own body on the cross 
 ever liveth to intercede in behalf of all who 
 come unto God through him. 
 
 But again, upon the same lake, a somewhat 
 similar occurrence took place. It was after 
 his glorious resurrection that our Redeemer 
 visited the shores of that beautiful sea of 
 Tiberias, which had witnessed so many of his 
 miracles, and where he had so often preached 
 the words of eternal life. On that shore several 
 of his disciples were now collected. " There 
 were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called 
 Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, 
 and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his 
 disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a 
 fishing. They say unto him, We also go with 
 thee. They went forth and entered into a 
 ship immediately ; and that night they caught 
 nothing. But when the morning was now 
 come, Jesus stood on the shore : but the dis- 
 ciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus 
 saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat ? 
 They answered him, No. And he said unto 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 19 
 
 them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, 
 and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and 
 now they were not able to draw it for the mul- 
 titude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom 
 Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. 
 
 " Now when Simon Peter heard that it was 
 the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for 
 he was naked,) and did cast himself into the 
 sea. And the other disciples came in a little 
 ship, (for they were not far from land, but as 
 it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net 
 with fishes. As soon then as they were come 
 to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish 
 laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto 
 them, Bring of the fish which ye have now 
 caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the 
 net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and 
 fifty and three : and for all there were so many, 
 yet was not the net broken." John xxi. 2-11. 
 
 Such were the miracles connected with fish, 
 which Christ wrought, at the honoured sea of 
 Tiberias, the lake of Galilee. Several of his 
 disciples, Simon and Andrew, James and John, 
 the sons of Zebedee, were fishermen. This 
 circumstance is thus commented upon by Izaak 
 Walton : " They that occupy themselves in 
 deep waters, see the wonderful works of God,"* 
 
 * Psa. cvii. 23, 24. 
 
20 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 indeed, such wonders and pleasures, too, as 
 the land affords not. And that they be fit for 
 the contemplation of the most prudent, and 
 pious, and peaceable men, seems to be testified 
 by the practice of so many devout and contem- 
 plative men, as the patriarchs and prophets of 
 old, and of the apostles of our Saviour in our 
 latter times ; of which twelve, we are sure he 
 chose four that were simple fishermen, whom 
 he inspired and sent to publish his blessed will 
 to the Gentiles, and inspired them also with a 
 power to speak all languages, and by their 
 powerful eloquence to beget faith in the unbe- 
 lieving Jews ; and themselves to suffer for that 
 Saviour whom their forefathers and they had 
 crucified, and in their sufferings to preach 
 freedom from the incumbrances of the law, and 
 a new way to everlasting life. This was the 
 employment of those happy fishermen, concern- 
 ing w r hich choice some have made these obser- 
 vations. First, That he never reproved these 
 for their employment or calling as he did 
 scribes and the money-changers. And, secondly, 
 He found that the hearts of such men, by nature, 
 were fitted for quietness and contemplation 
 men of mild, and sweet, and peaceable spirits : 
 these men our blessed Saviour, who is observed 
 to love to plant grace in good natures, though, 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 21 
 
 indeed, nothing be too hard for him, yet these men 
 he chose to call from their irreprovable employ- 
 ment, and gave them grace to be his disciples, 
 and do wonders ; I say four of twelve." 
 
 " And it is observable, that it was our 
 Saviour's will that these four fishermen should 
 have a priority of nomination in the catalogue 
 of his twelve apostles. Matt. x. 2 ; Acts i. 
 13 ; as, namely, first St. Peter, St. Andrew, 
 St. James, and St. John, and then the rest in 
 their order. And it is yet more observable, 
 that when our blessed Saviour went up into the 
 mount, when he left the rest of his disciples, 
 and chose only three to bear him company at 
 his transfiguration, that those three were all 
 fishermen* And it is believed that all the 
 other apostles, after they betook themselves to 
 follow Christ, betook themselves to be fisher- 
 men too ; for it is certain that the greater 
 number of them were found together fishing by 
 Jesus after his resurrection, as it is recorded in 
 the 21st chapter of St. John's Gospel." 
 
 Turning from the Egyptians and Israelites to 
 the Greeks and Romans, we find that fish was 
 in great request among those people ; and 
 among the latter in particular several sorts 
 were in high estimation. They had fish-ponds, 
 or vivaria, supplied, as the need might be, with 
 fresh or sea-water, and in these the fishes were 
 
22 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 kept and fed with great care, and at consider- 
 able cost. Amongst these was the mursena, a 
 species which often attains to five feet in length, 
 and is armed with horrible jaws ; it is said that 
 refractory slaves were often thrown alive to these 
 fishes to be devoured. They were kept in vast 
 numbers ; for Caesar, on the celebration of one 
 of his triumphs, is reported to have distributed 
 six thousand specimens among his friends. 
 
 Another celebrated fish was the scarus, 
 (Scants creticus aldrovand.) This is a native of 
 the Greek sea, and was sent to Eome at great 
 cost, while expensive attempts were made to 
 naturalize it along the shores of Italy. " Nunc 
 scaro datur prindpatus" Now the pre-eminence 
 is given to the scarus, says Pliny ; but whe- 
 ther it deserved so high a reputation is question- 
 able. At the present day, Cuvier informs us, 
 it is eaten in Greece with a sauce of its own 
 intestines. The turbot (Rhombus) was valued 
 both by the Greeks and Komans, as it is still 
 among ourselves ; though we must say, in 
 our humble opinion, more highly than it 
 really merits. The flesh is white, and re- 
 markably firm and close. It was a monstrous 
 fish of this species, which from its size asto- 
 nished the emperor Domitian, who ordered a 
 consultation of the senate, in order to devise 
 the best way of bringing it to the table. The 
 
FISHES THE FOOD OF MAN. 23 
 
 anchovy (Encrasicholus engraulisj) so common 
 in the Mediterranean, was also known to the 
 Greeks and Eomans, who prepared a sauce 
 from it, much perhaps as we do now ; it was 
 called garum. Another sauce or pickle, made 
 from the tunny, was called muria, but it was 
 less esteemed than garum. There was also 
 another fish sauce, called alex^ or halex ; and 
 salt fish was also used in abundance. It 
 was sold in the Forum Piscatorium, by the 
 salsamentarii, or fishmongers. Fishing was a 
 favourite amusement among the Eomans ; they 
 used both lines and nets. Suetonius states, that 
 Nero was accustomed to fish with a net of gold 
 and purple ; and we learn from Plutarch, that 
 angling was one of the principal recreations of 
 the luxurious Anthony and Cleopatra. 
 
 We need not extend our review to other 
 nations of antiquity, among whom, as in the 
 present day, fishes were of more or less import- 
 ance as an article of food ; and upon which, if 
 indeed we are to credit historians, some people 
 exclusively subsisted ; such were the Ichthyo- 
 phagi, who, according to various authorities, 
 not only lived entirely on these creatures, but 
 even constructed their habitations of the bones. 
 
24 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BRITISH FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 
 
 To come to modern days, there are few nations, 
 it may be observed, which do not make use of 
 fishes as food ; our remark applies equally to 
 savage as to civilized people, from the Green- 
 landers and Samoiedes, to the natives of the 
 most polished states of Europe. The sea, the 
 great lakes, and the rivers of the globe, con- 
 stitute so many boundless magazines, which 
 through ages past have afforded, and for ages 
 to come will afford the supply appointed by 
 Almighty wisdom. So important to a nation, 
 indeed, are its fisheries, that they are made the 
 subjects of legislation, their boundaries in the 
 sea are determined by international compacts, 
 the seasons are prescribed, and the size even 
 of the meshes of the nets employed are regu- 
 lated by law. 
 
 With respect to Great Britain, her fisheries 
 extend not only around the coast, but are car- 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 25 
 
 ried on in more distant places, and among them 
 we may particularize those of Newfoundland 
 and the coast of Labrador. " The great bank 
 of Newfoundland is the principal station of the 
 distant cod-fishery ; the fish found on it being 
 not only of excellent quality, but in the greatest 
 abundance. The bank began to be resorted to by 
 fishers early in the sixteenth century. In 1578, 
 France had on the bank of Newfoundland 150 
 vessels ; Spain, 120 or 130 ; Portugal, 50 ; and 
 England, from 30 to 50. During the first half 
 of the last century, the fishery was principally 
 carried on by the English (including the 
 Anglo-Americans) and the French ; but the 
 capture of Cape Breton, and of their other 
 possessions in America, gave a severe blow to 
 the fishery of the latter. 
 
 " The American war divided the British 
 fishery ; that portion of it which had been pre- 
 viously carried on from New England being 
 thereafter merged in that of the United States. 
 Still, however, we contrived to preserve the 
 larger share. At an average of the three 
 years, ending with 1789, we are said to have 
 had 402 ships, 1,911 boats, and 16,856 men, 
 engaged in the American fisheries. During 
 the last war, the French being excluded from 
 the fisheries, those of England attained to an 
 
26 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 extraordinary degree of prosperity, the total 
 value of the produce of the Newfoundland 
 fishery in 1814 having exceeded 2,800,000. 
 But since the peace, the British fishery on the 
 Newfoundland banks has rapidly declined, and 
 can hardly, indeed, be said at this moment to 
 exist. It is now almost entirely carried on by 
 the French and Americans ; the facilities en- 
 joyed by the latter for its prosecution being 
 greater than those of any other people, and the 
 former being tempted to engage in it by the 
 extraordinary encouragement afforded by go- 
 vernment. 
 
 "At present, the British fishery carried on 
 by the inhabitants of Newfoundland is con- 
 fined entirely to the shore, or boat-fishery. 
 The average annual produce of the fisheries of 
 all sorts, including seal, salmon, etc., exported 
 from Newfoundland during the three years 
 ending with 1832, is stated by Mr. M'Gregor at 
 516,417. There is also a considerable fishery 
 from the ports and harbours of Nova Scotia, 
 Cape Breton, New Brunswick, etc. But next 
 to that of Newfoundland the principal British 
 fishery is carried on along the coast of Labrador, 
 its produce being estimated at from 300,000 
 to 350,000 a year."* 
 
 * M'Culloch. 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 
 
 27 
 
 The exportation of fish from Newfoundland 
 in each of the years, 1832, 1833, and 1834, was 
 as follows : 
 
 
 1832. 
 
 1833. 
 
 1834. 
 
 Cod, dry. . cwt. 
 Do. wet. . barrels 
 Herrings. . boxes 
 Do. . . barrels 
 Mackerel. . dc. 
 Salmon .. do. 
 
 619,177 
 658 
 86 
 1,728 
 
 477 
 2,690 
 
 883,536 
 3,633 
 
 2,039 
 326 
 3,256 
 
 763,187 
 
 * 
 
 1,623 
 202 
 3,363 
 
 Value of fish exported. 
 
 319,265 
 
 455,672 
 
 443,577 ' 
 
 In 1836, the number of British vessels engaged 
 in the Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries 
 amounted to 94, with 721 men. The boats 
 employed were 11,427 ; fishermen and boys, 
 49,720; coopers, 1,916 ; fish-curers, 1,916 ; per- 
 sons employed in cleansing, drying, and pack- 
 ing the fish, 26,038 ; labourers, 7,235 ; barrels 
 of herrings, 497,615 ; quantity of cod cured 
 and dried, 38,040 cwts. ; pickled, 6,276 barrels. 
 To return to our own shores. Our home fish- 
 eries, as it respects the property embarked in 
 them, the number of men employed, and the 
 value of their produce, are, in a commercial 
 and political sense, of high importance. The 
 claim to certain fishing-grounds has been settled 
 by treaties between the British government and 
 those of the adjoining kingdoms of Europe; and 
 the invasion of these stations, or the forcible 
 
28 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 exclusion of parties pretending to the rights of 
 fishery within the assigned limits, has led to 
 reprisals, to hostile proceedings, and even to 
 serious disputes between the governments 
 interested in the settlement of the question. 
 Hence, at various times has the attention of the 
 legislature been directed to the establishment 
 of regulations, and encouragements have been 
 given to those who embarked property in the 
 speculation. 
 
 In the ninth century, the herring fishery was 
 extensively pursued in Scotland, but when the 
 convention of royal burghs prohibited the 
 exportation of fish before the resident popula- 
 tion was supplied at a given pri6e, the fishery 
 declined, and many of the fishermen settled in 
 Holland, which drew the attention of the Dutch 
 to the Scotch fisheries. The Dutch have at 
 present fisheries on the Doggerbank, and at 
 Feroe. During the year 1845, 187 sloops left 
 Ostend for the fishery at the Doggerbank, and 
 12 for Feroe. They brought back 9,432 tons 
 from the former ground, and 1,215 from the 
 latter ; total, 10,647 tons, being less by 1,105 
 tons than were procured in the year 1844. 
 Several enactments were framed under James 
 in., iv., v., and vi., of Scotland, (before the latter 
 ascended the English throne,) for the restoration 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 29 
 
 of the Scottish fisheries, but with only partial 
 success. 
 
 In 1633, Charles i. ordained an association 
 of the three kingdoms, governed by a standing 
 committee, and for the better encouragement of 
 the adventure enjoined the strict observation of 
 Lent an impolitic step, which the breaking 
 out of the civil war interrupted. During the 
 Protectorate little was done, excepting a remis- 
 sion of salt duties, and excise duties on naval 
 necessaries, in favour of private parties engaged 
 in the fisheries ; but Charles n. appointed, in 
 1677, a council of royal fishery, in order to the 
 establishment of laws and regulations ; and for 
 the encouragement of those engaged in this 
 branch of commerce " a lottery was granted 
 for three years, a collection was made in 
 churches, and an exemption granted for seven 
 years from customs, both inwards and outwards, 
 on the sale of fish exported to the Baltic, Den- 
 mark, Norway, France, and some other coun- 
 tries. Besides this, all victuallers and coffee- 
 house keepers were compelled each to take a 
 certain number of barrels of herrings yearly, at 
 305. per barrel, until a foreign market could be 
 established to the satisfaction of the council. 
 Beyond these encouragements, a duty of 2s. 6d. 
 was imposed upon foreign herrings imported, 
 
30 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 and a promise was made of all such other ad- 
 vantages as experience should discover to be 
 necessary." No advantage permanently re- 
 sulted from these stringent regulations, and 
 after sixteen years of disappointment, a charter 
 was granted to a new fishing company, having 
 a capital of 11,580. 
 
 In the year 1690, this company was again 
 renewed, and on its failure was dissolved by act 
 of parliament in the early part of the reign of 
 William in. Other efforts were subsequently 
 made, but were all unsuccessful. In the year 
 1749, " The Society of the Free British Fishery" 
 was formed under act of parliament, with a 
 capital of 500,000. A bounty of 36s. per ton on 
 all decked vessels of from twenty to eighty tons 
 employed in fishing was granted for fourteen 
 years ; in 1657, the bounty was increased to 
 565. per ton, and in 1759 to 80s. per ton, 
 besides a grant of 2s. 3d. per barrel upon all 
 fish exported ; interest, moreover, at the rate of 
 3 per cent., being secured to the subscribers, 
 payable out of the customs' revenue. Eight 
 vessels only were entered on the custom-house 
 books for the fisheries, notwithstanding the en- 
 couragement, and the scheme proved futile. 
 
 In the same year, 1759, the whole of the buss 
 (small vessels) fishery of Scotland brought in 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 31 
 
 only four barrels of sea-sticks, or herrings 
 cured at sea, each of which, in bounties alone, 
 cost the government 113. 155., and each bar- 
 rel of mercantile herrings cost 159. 7s. 6d. 
 Adam Smith, who records the fact, gives the 
 explanation thus, namely, that the bounty 
 being given to the vessels and not to the fish, 
 ships were equipped to catch the bounty and 
 not the herrings. 
 
 In the reign of George in., (1786,) a different 
 regulation was appointed by act of parliament ; 
 a bounty of 4s. per barrel was given on fish, 
 the tonnage bounty was reduced to 20s., limit- 
 ing the whole payment to 30s. per ton, except- 
 ing when more than three barrels per ton were 
 taken, in which case Is. per barrel was given 
 on the excess. We learn that, on " an average 
 of ten years, 54,394 barrels were annually 
 taken, at a cost to the government, (or rather 
 the nation,) of about 7s. 6d. per barrel." 
 
 In 1808, the bounty was again raised to 60s. 
 per ton, on decked vessels of not less than sixty 
 tons' burden, employed in the deep sea herring 
 fishery, with an additional bounty of 20s. per 
 ton to the first thirty vessels which should be 
 entered the first year. Besides this, a sum of 
 3,000 was granted in premium for boats of 
 not less than fifteen tons' burden. Various 
 
32 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 regulations respecting the curing and barrelling 
 of the fish, chiefly borrowed from the Dutch, 
 were laid down, and a board consisting of seven 
 commissioners was appointed for seeing that 
 the provisions of the act were strictly carried 
 into operation. In 1815, this act was con- 
 firmed, but the bounty extended to vessels of 
 forty-five tons' burden ; and, in 1817, while there 
 was a heavy duty on salt, the use of this article 
 for the curing of fish was permitted duty free. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, the fishery could 
 not be said to be in a truly stable or flourishing 
 condition the system of bounties w r as radically 
 wrong. The business was forced and fictitious, 
 and Mr. M'Culloch well observes : "Its exten- 
 sion under the circumstances in question, instead 
 of affording any proof of its being in a really 
 flourishing condition, was distinctly the reverse. 
 Individuals without capital, but who obtained 
 loans sufficient to enable them to acquire boats, 
 barrels, salt, etc., on the credit of the bounty, 
 entered in vast numbers into the trade. The 
 market was most commonly glutted with fish, 
 and yet the temptation held out by the bounty 
 caused it to be still further overloaded. Great 
 injury was consequently done to those fish- 
 curers who possessed capital, and even the 
 fishermen were injured by the system. 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 33 
 
 " Most of the boats employed in the fishery 
 never touch the water but during six weeks, 
 from the middle or end of July to the middle 
 of September. They are owned and sailed, 
 not by regular fishermen following that voca- 
 tion only, but by tradesmen, small farmers, 
 farm- servants, and other landsmen, who may 
 have sufficient skill to manage a boat at that 
 season, "but who do not follow the sea, except 
 for the six weeks of the herring fishery, when 
 they go upon a kind of gambling speculation of 
 earning a twelvemonths 7 income by six weeks 1 
 work."* It has been often said, in vindication 
 of the bounty system, that by extending the 
 fishery it is an important nursery for seamen, 
 but the preceding statement shows that such 
 has not been the effect. On the contrary, it 
 has tended to depress the condition of the 
 genuine fisherman by bringing a host of inter- 
 lopers into the field of speculation ; and it has 
 been also prejudicial to the little farmers and 
 tradesmen, by withdrawing their attention from 
 their peculiar business that they may embark 
 in what has been hitherto little less than a sort 
 of lottery adventure. The system, was in fact 
 demoralizing ; it was a bounty on idleness and 
 perjury ; it acted as a clog upon industry, and 
 
 * Quarterly Journal, No. xi. p. 653. 
 B 
 
34 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 a check to reliance upon personal exertions 
 independent of extraneous aid ; nor could it be 
 otherwise than impolitic, since it imposed a tax 
 upon the nation^ in order that other countries 
 might be supplied with articles of consumption 
 at prices below their actual cost. 
 
 In due time, however, this impolicy began to 
 be acknowledged. In 1821, the tonnage duty 
 of 60s. was repealed, but a bounty of 4s. per 
 barrel was continued up to the year 1826, 
 After this, it was reduced by Is. each year, 
 thereby ceasing in the year 1830. Nor was 
 the reduction and ultimate abolition of this 
 bounty productive of any injury to the herring 
 fishery ; on the contrary, according to Mr. 
 Ternan, the houses of the fishermen of Skerries 
 (a village on the coast of Lancashire) are neater 
 and contain more comforts than formerly, and 
 the men are better clothed, better fed, and more 
 sober and industrious. The same observations 
 apply to Scotland, where the fishermen have 
 better and larger boats, and fishing utensils of 
 higher value, than those they possessed while 
 the system of bounty was in operation. 
 
 " The greater part by far of the British her- 
 ring fishery has been long carried on from 
 different places, principally on the east coast of 
 Scotland, of which Wick, in Caithness, is the 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 35 
 
 principal.* Of the 397,737 barrels of herrings 
 reported by the Fishery Commissioners to have 
 been cured in the year ending 5th of April, 
 1837, 33,089 were cured at Wick, 32,584 at 
 Fraserburg, 29,872 in Shetland, 22,790 at 
 Bamff, 18,706 at Helmsdale, 19,091 at Roth- 
 say, 15,831 at Lybster, etc. None were cured 
 in the Isle of. Man, formerly one of the principal 
 seats of the fishery. The Yarmouth fishery, 
 though much fallen off, is still prosecuted to a 
 considerable extent. About one hundred sail 
 of fishing vessels, averaging from forty to fifty 
 tons each, belong to that port, exclusive of about 
 fifty or sixty vessels that arrive annually from 
 Yorkshire during the herring season. The 
 capital employed is estimated at about 250,000. 
 Lowestoft, nine miles from Yarmouth, employs 
 about seventy boats of forty tons each. The 
 greater number of the herrings taken at Yar- 
 mouth are smoked, and known in London by 
 the name of Yarmouth bloaters." | Hastings 
 and Folkestone have good herring grounds, 
 and supply the London markets with fresh 
 
 * Pulteney Town, the suburb of Wick, on the south side of 
 the bay, has within the last few years rapidly increased. 
 During the fishing season, from 1,500 to 2,000 boats, having 
 each on an average a crew of five men, rendezvous here. Of 
 these, 500 boats belong to the town, the others are from 
 Northumberland, and even the Hebrides. 
 
 t M'Culloch. 
 
36 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 fish. Herrings are also taken in Cardigan and 
 Swansea Bays. In Ireland, herring fisheries 
 are carried on along the coast of Donegal, in the 
 estuary of the Shannon, on the coast between 
 Dingle Bay and Kenmare, in Bantry Bay, and 
 on the Wicklow coast, as well as at other stations. 
 With respect to codfish, coalfish, ling, hake, 
 torsk, haddock, etc., the fishery is carried on in 
 a great variety of places. We may especially 
 notice the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and the 
 Doggerbank. The coast of Aberdeenshire is 
 noted for haddocks of the finest quality.* 
 Within the last few years, some migratory 
 movement has brought great quantities of cod 
 along the coasts of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, and Essex a circumstance which has 
 made considerable alteration in the fishery, and 
 the price of these fish in the London market. 
 The fishing smacks belonging to Barking, 
 Gravesend, and other ports on the Thames, 
 have become much increased in number to the 
 reduction of those of Harwich, and more distant 
 ports. The Harwich store-boats, with wells 
 for the preservation of the fish alive, used 
 formerly to come up the Thames as far as 
 Gravesend, and send up a portion of their cargo 
 
 * They are cured at the village of Finnan, near Aberdeen. 
 A Finnan haddock is much esteemed as a delicacy. 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 37 
 
 every night by the tide to Billingsgate, till the 
 well was emptied ; these vessels are by no 
 means so numerous as formerly. We may 
 here observe, that the Doggerbank cod is dis- 
 tinguished by a sharp nose elongated before the 
 eyes, and by the skin being of a dark brown 
 colour ; this variety prevails on our southern 
 shores. The Scotch cod has the nose round 
 and blunt, short and wide, and the skin is of a 
 yellowish ash-green. This short-nosed northern 
 variety is now less frequently to be seen in the 
 London shops than it was some years since. 
 The cod, and other white fish, are in the highest 
 perfection from October to the end of De- 
 cember. 
 
 The pilchard fishery, a fishery of some im- 
 portance, is carried on off the coasts of Cornwall 
 and Devon, which are visited by migratory 
 shoals in August and September, and also in 
 November or December. About a thousand 
 boats are said to be engaged in this business, 
 giving employment to about 3,500 men at 
 sea, and 5,000 men and women on shore. The 
 fish are pickled in barrels, and exported to the 
 continent. The average exports amount to 
 about 30,000 hogsheads per annum. As 
 regards turbots and soles, the former are rather 
 rare on the English coast ; the far greater number 
 
38 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 sent to the London market are obtained on the 
 Dutch coast ; they are chiefly taken by Dutch 
 fishermen, and sold to the English. Turbot 
 are also abundant on the sand banks in the 
 Manche, where the French fishermen lay lines 
 for them, and sell their prizes to the English. 
 Turbot and dorg are taken along the Devon- 
 shire coast, and the former along the shores 
 also of Durham and Yorkshire. The principal 
 trawling-ground for soles extends along the 
 south coast of England, but this fish is common 
 on most of the sand beds round our coast. 
 
 Mackerel visit different parts of our coast, 
 and are captured in vast numbers. They 
 swarm in March and the spring months, along 
 the coast of Sussex and Hampshire ; somewhat 
 later, they appear on the coast of Devonshire, 
 and they also visit the southern shores of Ireland. 
 It is from the coast of Sussex principally 
 that the great supplies arrive in the London 
 markets ; * vast shoals often occur on the 
 Suffolk coast. 
 
 * The price of mackerel in the Billingsgate market is very 
 fluctuating. " It is said, that if during the mackerel season 
 a vessel come to the wharf at five o'clock in the morning, when 
 the market opens, the fish may sell from 48*. to 50*. a hun- 
 dred. Whereas, if the same vessel came at ten o'clock, the 
 mackerel would not be worth more than 36*. a hundred ; and if 
 she came in the afternoon, they would not fetch more than 24*. 
 or 28*." 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 39 
 
 The western and eastern coasts of our island 
 are visited by the smelt, of which shoals, leaving 
 the sea in August, migrate up the estuaries 
 and so enter the rivers, where they sojourn 
 until the following spring ; there they deposit 
 their roe, during the months of March and 
 April, soon after which they return to the salt 
 water. Along the line of our southern coast 
 a fish called the atherine, or sand srnelt, some- 
 times confounded with the true smelt, is found. 
 It is, however, inferior to the latter, which does 
 not occur, or only occurs very rarely along the 
 southern coast.* The whitebait in myriads 
 visits the Thames, appearing in April, and 
 continuing to September. The sprat abounds 
 on our shores ; in winter, many tons are brought 
 to the London markets, and large quantities are 
 sold as manure in Kent, Essex, Norfolk, and 
 Suffolk. About forty bushels of sprats will 
 manure a single acre, at the price of sixpence 
 or eightpence a bushel. 
 
 London is supplied with vast quantities of 
 eels, by far the greater number of which are 
 brought alive from Holland. 
 
 We have hitherto said nothing respecting 
 
 * The true smelt has the second dorsal fin adipose, without 
 rays, while in the atherine the second dorsal fin is membra- 
 neous, and supported by numerous rays. 
 
40 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the salmon fisheries of Great Britain, which 
 are carried on only in estuaries and rivers, up 
 which they make their way, gaining the upper 
 and shallow pools, where they make furrows 
 in the gravelly bed for the reception of the eggs 
 or roe of the females. This migration up the 
 rivers takes place earlier or later, in autumn or 
 spring, according to the peculiarities of the 
 river or the condition of the fish ; and soon 
 after breeding, the salmon again gradually 
 descend to the sea ; consequently, the spawning 
 time varies, being earlier or later, according to 
 circumstances. " Eivers issuing from large 
 lakes afford early salmon, the waters having 
 been purified by deposition in the lakes, while, 
 on the other hand, rivers swollen by melting 
 snows in the spring months are later in the 
 season of producing fish, and yield their supply 
 when the lake rivers are beginning to fail." 
 The more northern rivers, as a general rule, 
 produce the earliest supply. In these, the fish 
 commence their ascent in autumn, remain there 
 during the winter, breed in November, and 
 return to the sea at the commencement of 
 spring, where they reside during summer. In 
 the Scotch rivers, the close time extends from 
 the 14th of September to the 1st of February, 
 when, by act of parliament, every person catch- 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 41 
 
 ing, or attempting to catch fish at that period, 
 is liable to a penalty of not less than l, nor 
 more than 10, for every offence, besides the 
 loss of boats and implements employed. Much 
 poaching, however, goes on, during the close 
 or breeding season, to the great injury of the 
 fisheries.* After breeding, they require some 
 time to recover their condition, and conse- 
 quently the number of fish obtained early in 
 the spring, in a proper state for food, is small, 
 compared with the quantity procured as the 
 spring and summer advances. During the 
 breeding season, the male is called a red fish, 
 and the female a black fish, from the peculiari- 
 ties of their colour. Having spawned, and 
 being unfit for food, the fish are called kelts ; 
 or the male is termed a kipper, and the female a 
 baggit : the young fry, called smolts, descend in 
 March and April to the estuary, and so gradually 
 to the sea, where their growth is amazingly 
 rapid, for fry of seven or eight inches in length, 
 marked in April or early in May, have returned 
 by the end of June, or in July, from the sea to 
 the river, weighing from two to three pounds 
 and upwards, and already in a condition to 
 breed. At this period, they are termed griles ; 
 and it is remarkable, that they push up the 
 * In Sweden, the salmon is said not to breed until June. 
 B 2 
 
42 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 river from the estuary and tideway earlier 
 than the more adult fish. 
 
 Many English rivers produce salmon, as the 
 Dee, the Esk, the Severn, the Wye, and rarely 
 the Thames. There is good salmon fishing in 
 some of the Welsh rivers, but it is from the 
 rivers of Scotland and Ireland that the mar- 
 kets are most abundantly supplied, and these 
 fisheries are mostly private property. London 
 derives the principal part of its supply from 
 Scotland ; and Liverpool, Manchester, and the 
 midland districts of England, from Ireland. Of 
 the Scotch rivers, the Tweed is celebrated for 
 its fishery. About thirty years ago, it produced 
 a rental of from 15,000 to 18,000 per year. 
 But from various causes it has lately declined 
 to such a degree, that it does not yield above 
 4,000 or 5,000 a year to its proprietors ; 
 the falling-off in this fishery, judging by the 
 returns from Berwick, is from about 10,000 
 boxes, each averaging nine stone, to 3,000 
 boxes, shipped annually from that port. Besides 
 the Tweed, there are other rivers in Scotland 
 with a valuable fishery, as the Tay, Forth, Dee, 
 Don, Findhorn, etc., but all are mostly in the 
 same condition as the Tweed. " There are 
 everywhere complaints of the growing scarcity 
 of fish ; and the fact that the exports from the 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PKODUCE. 43 
 
 rentals of all the principal rivers have decreased 
 during the last twenty years, shows that these 
 complaints are but too well founded." Besides 
 the system of poaching in close time, the weirs, 
 salmon-traps, and other obstructions placed in 
 the rivers, prove impediments to the fish in 
 their ascent, and prevent many from persever- 
 ing, while over-fishing has added its share : but, 
 perhaps, the main cause may 'arise from the 
 close time being too limited, which should com- 
 mence as early as the middle of August, and 
 continue to the close of February. It is now 
 -the practice to pack the Scotch salmon in 
 coarsely pounded ice, by which means they 
 arrive quite fresh in London, whereas formerly 
 the greater part of the salmon caught in the 
 Tweed, and other Scotch rivers, were pickled, 
 or kitted, after being boiled, and sent to London 
 under the name of Newcastle salmon.* 
 
 The Irish salmon fisheries of most note are 
 in the Bann, near Coleraine ; the Foyle ; the 
 
 * Within memory, salted salmon formed a material article 
 of economy in all the farm-houses of the Vale of the Tweed, 
 as a considerable portion of their winter stores, inasmuch as 
 that in-door servants often bargained that they should not 
 be obliged to take more than two weekly meals of salmoii. 
 It could then be bought fresh caught in summer at two shil- 
 ings the fish stone of nearly 19 pounds' weight. But from the 
 introduction of ice enabling the whole to be sent fresh to 
 London at all times, the price hardly falls below 12*. a stone, 
 and is often 30.?., and sometimes 42s." Kwr's Berwickshire. 
 
44 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 Billick, near Ballyshannon ; the Boyne, above 
 Drogheda ; and several others. Contrary to 
 \vhat has occurred in the Scotch rivers, the 
 Irish salmon fisheries have increased of late 
 years. Down to 1823, the average produce of 
 the Irish salmon fisheries did not exceed 40 
 tons, but from that period it has increased to 
 an average of 140 or 150 tons (120 pounds to 
 each cwt.) The sales of salmon, caught in the 
 Bann, Foyle, arid Moy, in 1835, amounted in 
 Liverpool to 9,000; Manchester 5,000; 
 Bristol, 400 ; Glasgow, 550 ; Dublin, 300; 
 London (pickled), 400 ; and in the neighbour- 
 hood of the rivers, 1,800. Total, 17,450. 
 
 In June, 1846, the Fourth Annual Report of 
 the Commissioners of Public Works on the 
 subject of the Fisheries of Ireland was presented 
 to parliament. The result of it is, that, 
 throughout 1845, there has been, on the whole, 
 a steady, though slow progress towards im- 
 provement in the general fisheries of the 
 country. The commissioners conclude their 
 observations with these remarks and proposals 
 (in speaking of the salmon fisheries and the 
 close season) : 
 
 " To the proposition of a uniform close season 
 for the sea and tideways, we apprehend no 
 well-founded objection can be advanced, 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 45 
 
 " But a slight departure of uniformity in the 
 tipper or fresh water portions of the rivers, 
 however apparently calculated to give rise to 
 jealousies, will, we conceive, be found, upon 
 investigation, judicious, and, in fact, to be the 
 most expedient compromise (for such only it 
 must be considered) that can be adopted. 
 
 " We are strongly impressed with the im 
 portauce, not only to the public, but also to the 
 parties locally interested, or possessed of ex- 
 clusive rights, of having the rivers fully stocked 
 with a supply of early breeding fish, and of the 
 consequent necessity of ceasing from all kinds 
 of fishing for salmon at an early period of the 
 autumn. 
 
 " Further, we believe, that to open any part 
 of the month of January would, on the whole, 
 be attended with more evil than good ; and the 
 few persons who have heretofore derived ad- 
 vantage therefrom, either under the provisions 
 of the old laws, or by acting contrary to law, 
 will participate largely in the benefits certain 
 to arise from an improved system, efficiently 
 carried out, and will be amply rewarded for 
 any temporary loss they may sustain in being 
 prevented from fishing in that month. We 
 therefore propose 
 
 " 1. That in the upper or fresh water por- 
 
46 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 tions of rivers throughout Ireland, there shall - 
 be a uniform close season as regards every 
 mode of fishing for salmon, from the 15th of 
 September to the last day of February inclusive. 
 
 " 2. That in the sea and tideways there shall 
 be a uniform close season from the 1st of 
 September to the 31st of January inclusive. 
 
 "3. That all net fishing for salmon and 
 trout shall cease in the upper portion of rivers 
 on the 31st of August ; and that angling only 
 for the fish shall be permitted until the 15th of 
 September. 
 
 " Some doubt has been expressed whether 
 angling might not be permitted to a later period 
 than the loth of September. But, after due 
 consideration, we are opposed to any such ex- 
 tension, which would be an exceeding by so 
 much of the open period fixed for the greater 
 part of Scotland by the Act of 9 George m. 
 
 " If, in conjunction with a due observance of 
 the limitation above proposed, suitable mi- 
 gration passes be left even in what are con- 
 sidered the best rivers in Ireland, and due pro- 
 tection be afforded during the close season, we 
 confidently predict that, in the course of a very 
 few years, the parties most interested will find, 
 in the improvement of the fisheries, that their 
 advantage has best been consulted in the 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 47 
 
 refusal to accede to the full extent of their 
 demands. 
 
 " We wish further to repeat, and to impress 
 upon the attention of all parties, that the rivers 
 are the natural nurseries, not merely for the 
 fisheries within their banks and at their 
 mouths, but also for the public fisheries on the 
 coasts, and that the times to be allowed for 
 fishing therein- must be regulated by a con- 
 sideration of what is best, on the whole, for the 
 public interest." 
 
 From the slight sketch we have thus far 
 given of the extent and operations of the British 
 fisheries, (for the chief statistical facts of which 
 we are mainly indebted to Mr. M'Culloch, and 
 an able article in the Penny Cyclopaedia,) a 
 tolerable idea may be formed of the national 
 importance of this branch of commercial enter- 
 prise. It gives employment to thousands; it 
 is one of the sources of national prosperity. 
 We have said nothing of the oyster fishery, the 
 lobster fishery, or the whale fishery, for these 
 do not come within our present subject. 
 Various are the estimates, from defective data, 
 which different writers have given of the total 
 value of the combined fisheries belonging to 
 Great Britain. There are no means of arriving 
 at accuracy ; the sum, however, must be very 
 
48 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 great. Sir John Barrow, in an article on 
 Fisheries, in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, estimates their total value, including 
 foreign and domestic, at 8,300,000 a year. 
 This amount is regarded by Mr. M'Cullcch as 
 an exaggeration, and he is of decided opinion 
 that the entire value of the fisheries is within 
 3,000,000, or 3,500,000 per year ; still an 
 enormous and startling sum, sufficient to justify 
 our previous observations.* 
 
 It is not easy to speculate on the influence 
 which railroads, traversing the kingdom in all 
 directions, will ultimately have upon the 
 fisheries. It may be presumed that the means 
 of rapid communication thus opened with the 
 central counties will tend to the increase in those 
 districts of the consumption of fish, where little 
 in a fresh state had been previously made use 
 of. In many instances, our central towns will, 
 perhaps, be abundantly supplied directly from 
 the coast ; and at all events, orders for fish, 
 given by the resident country gentry to London 
 
 * Looking at Cornwall alone, the fisheries situate on the 
 south coast, principally at Looe, Polperro, Megavissey, Port 
 Looe, Falmouth, and Mount's Bay, and on the north coast of 
 St. Ives, produce, upon an average, 21,000 hogsheads of 
 pilchards annually, and sometimes nearly double this number, 
 and generally 2,000 tons of mackerel. The pilchards are 
 cured largely for exportation, Italy being the principal 
 market. There is also a great home consumption of this 
 fish in Cornwall and Devonshire. 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 49 
 
 fishmongers j which a few years since it would 
 have been useless to have sent, will be exe- 
 cuted with such speed, that the same day on 
 which the letter is posted, and certainly the 
 next, will bring the fish in high condition to 
 hand. The impossibility, therefore, of provid- 
 ing fish for an entertainment or dinner will be 
 no longer a complaint. Thus, then, may we 
 look for an increased consumption of this pro- 
 duce of the teeming waters throughout the 
 whole of our island. To France, and the con- 
 tinental countries of Europe, where the interior 
 towns are so remote from the coast, the above 
 observations will even more strongly apply. 
 In these countries, river and pond fish are in 
 far more general requisition than in England, 
 and the reason is obvious, there are no means 
 of conveying sea fish fresh and fit for food into 
 the interior of the country ; and hence in many 
 states, as in Germany, Austria, Prussia, etc., 
 extensive ponds and sheets of water become 
 profitable as fisheries, and great attention is 
 paid to the maintenance of the stock. An acre 
 of water will often let for as much, or more, than 
 an acre of land, and yield the renter good profit. 
 With respect to the means employed in 
 taking fish in the fisheries, we have hitherto 
 said nothing. They vary according to the 
 
50 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 species, and the depth of the water ; drift-nets, 
 sweep-nets, seans, baited lines and hooks, 
 weirs, or toils, are all in their turn adopted ; 
 but of these we shall speak more particularly 
 when we come to the natural history of the 
 particular species to which we shall restrict 
 our observations. 
 
 In our brief survey of the fisheries, we con- 
 fined our statistical observations entirely to 
 such species as are caught in the sea, with the 
 exception of eels, smelts, and salmon. Setting 
 these latter aside, none are afforded by the 
 waters of our lakes and rivers necessitating the 
 employment of a stated body of professed fisher- 
 men. We may, perhaps, except the flounder, 
 which ascends rivers, and is taken by the 
 Thames fishermen as high up the stream as 
 Teddington ; it is, however, common along our 
 coasts, and is both a salt and fresh water 
 fish. There is, moreover, a char fishery on the 
 various lakes of Cumberland and Westmore- 
 land ; and some portions of Windermere and 
 Coniston lakes rent pretty high ; but we have 
 no means of ascertaining the quantity of fish 
 captured. The usual mode of taking them is 
 with sunken nets, or trammels with baits, and 
 a few are caught by the fly-fishers when whip- 
 ping for trout. 
 
FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCE. 51 
 
 Trout, perch, carp, and tench, together with 
 pike, are often to be seen at the London fish- 
 mongers', but they are sent expressly by the 
 owners of the rivers or preserves, (in which 
 they are taken by way of sport, or for the pur- 
 pose of thinning the water,) in the same way 
 as pheasants are sent to the London dealers in 
 poultry and game. Many, doubtless, are taken 
 by poachers, for the sake of a precarious and 
 dishonest livelihood. But with regard to the 
 consumption of these fishes we have no statisti- 
 cal data ; it is far larger in proportion in the 
 rural districts of our island than in London, or 
 in the chief towns. 
 
52 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FISHES WITH THE RAYS OF THE DORSAL FIN 
 SPINOUS. 
 
 FROM these details, let us next proceed to notice 
 some of the fishes of the British Islands. It 
 must be evident, that in a discursive sketch like 
 the present, we shall be able only to make a 
 selection of such as are most likely to come 
 under the observation of the general reader, 
 or have more than ordinary interest. Of these 
 some are river fishes, others are exclusively 
 confined to the sea, while others, again, inhabit 
 both salt and fresh water. Without respect to 
 these particulars, we shall follow a scientific 
 arrangement, but, at the same time, forbear 
 from entering into details, which are rather 
 more proper for purely scientific works than 
 popular treatises. A few brief preliminary 
 observations, however, may be permitted. 
 It is necessary that the reader should know 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 53 
 
 the names of the fins, which are not only im- 
 portant organs, but afford, by their structure, 
 position, and number, definite characters for 
 the establishment of orders, families, and ge- 
 nera. They are supported by bony or by car- 
 tilaginous rays ; they are thus designated : 
 
 * 
 
 Dorsal fins, on the back, D D. Pectoral fins, p. 
 Ventral fins, v. Anal fin, A. Caudal fin, C. 
 The formula for expressing the number of fins, 
 the number of fin-rays and their condition, 
 taking the perch by way of example, is thus 
 written, D 15. 1 + 13. P 14. v 1 + 5. A 2 + 8. 
 C 17. The meaning is as follows : D, dorsal fin, 
 has fifteen rays, all spinous ; the second dorsal 
 fin has one ray spinous + 13 that are soft. 
 p, pectoral fin, with 14 rays soft, v, ventral fin 
 with one ray spinous + 5 soft. A, anal fin, 
 with 2 rays spinous + 8 soft, c, caudal fin, 
 with 17 rays. 
 
 Along the sides of fishes is a row of scales, 
 
54 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 forming what is termed the lateral line. These 
 scales are pierced through near the centre by a 
 little tube that allows the exudation of the glu- 
 tinous or mucous secretion, produced by glands 
 beneath, and which thence spreads over the 
 surface of the fish, defending it from the action 
 of the water ; this line is seen in the figure 
 at L. 
 
 The gills of fishes are in general fringes on 
 gill-arches, as may be seen in the herring or 
 salmon, protected by gill-covers (operculum.) 
 
 Each gill-cover, or operculum, is divided into 
 five parts : 1, The pre-operculum ; 2, The oper- 
 culum ; 3, The sub-operculum ; 4, The inter- 
 operculum ; 5, The branchiostegous * rays. 
 In some fishes, as the eel, the branchial aper- 
 ture is very small, and placed far behind the 
 * Gill-covering rays. 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 55 
 
 cavity containing the gills themselves * In the 
 shark tribe, the gills are fixed, there are no 
 true gill-covers, the water escaping through 
 fine branchial apertures on each side. In the 
 flat skates, the mouth, nostrils, and branchial 
 orifices are on the under surface, and the eyes on 
 the upper surface, near which are two temporal 
 orifices, which, while the fish reposes supine on 
 the mud, admit the entrance of the water into 
 the respiratory or branchial cavity, and also 
 its exit. In the lamprey, seven orifices on 
 each side of the neck lead to so many cells, 
 performing the office of gills, and through these 
 orifices the water is received and expelled. 
 The teeth in fishes vary exceedingly ; in some 
 species they are disposed upon the jaws, the 
 palate, the tongue, and the throat ; in others, 
 the mouth is destitute of teeth, while the throat 
 or pharynx is provided with them. They 
 differ also very greatly in form ; in some fishes 
 they are constructed for crushing ; in others, for 
 cutting ; in others, for prehension ; but in every 
 instance their character accords with that of 
 the food upon which the species habitually 
 subsist. 
 
 Fishes are divided into two great primary 
 sections, namely, the osseous and the cartila- 
 ginous. In the osseous fishes, the bones of the 
 
56 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 skeleton are firm and hard, though less so than 
 in quadrupeds or birds. In the cartilaginous 
 fishes, such as the shark, the skates or rays, the 
 lampreys, etc., the bones of the skeleton are 
 never completely ossified ; they permanently 
 exist in a state of tough firm cartilage. 
 
 These two sections are resolved into several 
 orders, each order comprising numerous fami- 
 lies, composed of genera, in near relationship 
 with each other. The first order of the osseous 
 series is termed the acanthopterygious, (Acan- 
 thopterygii,) which, in plain English, means 
 " fishes with the fin-rays of their dorsal fin 
 spinous, or, at least, mostly spinous." Of this 
 order the perch family (Percidd) is very con- 
 spicuous. 
 
 The perch (Perca fluviatilis) is too well 
 known to need any detailed description. It is 
 distributed over the whole of Europe, living in 
 rivers, lakes, and large ponds ; it is remarkable 
 for beauty, and the sharpness of the spines of 
 the first dorsal fin, by which latter the hands 
 of incautious or inexperienced fishers are often 
 severely lacerated. These spines serve as very 
 efficient defensive weapons, so that a good-sized 
 perch need not fear even the ferocious pike. 
 The perch is gregarious in its habits, and 
 frequents the still and quiet parts of rivers, 
 
THE PERCH. 57 
 
 rather than the rapid and turbulent. Worms, 
 small fish, as minnows, and frogs, are its usual 
 prey ; it is bold and ravenous, and eagerly 
 seizes the bait ; and, says Walton, " as one has 
 wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in 
 a hole, they may be at one standing all catched 
 one after another, they being, as he says, like 
 the wicked of the world, not afraid, though 
 their fellows and companions perish in their 
 sight." During the winter, however, excepting 
 the day be warm, the perch can seldom be 
 taken by the angle, nor does it bite freely till 
 the mulberry tree buds, that is, until the chilly 
 portion of the spring is over. 
 
 The perch will live long out of the water, 
 and in a basket of wet moss may be carried to 
 a very great distance, especially if a little 
 water be occasionally poured over it. On the 
 continent, where fresh water fishes are much in 
 request, perch are often carried in this manner 
 to market, and if not sold at the close of the 
 day, taken back, replaced in the pond, and thus 
 reserved for another occasion. The breeding 
 season of this fish is about the beginning of 
 May. 
 
 The perch seldom attains a very great size ; 
 a fish of the weight of half a pound or a pound 
 is fine, and one of two or three pounds may be 
 
58 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 considered as extremely large, yet there are 
 instances on record of perch being captured 
 weighing six, eight, and even nine pounds ; 
 the ponds at Kichmond-park, as we are in- 
 formed by Mr. Yarrell, have yielded perch of 
 four pounds. 
 
 Closely allied to the perch is the ruffe, or 
 pope, (Acerina vulgaris,) common in the canals 
 and slow shaded streams of England, especially 
 such as have a gravelly bed. This fish seldom 
 exceeds six inches in length ; the scales are 
 rough, and the dorsal fin is single. In habits 
 and manners it resembles the perch, and its 
 flesh is excellent. " No fish that swims is of a 
 pleasanter taste ; he is a greedy biter ; and they 
 will usually lie, abundance of them together, in 
 one reserved place, where the water is deep 
 and runs quietly." The general colour of this 
 fish is brown above, passing into a yellower 
 tint on the sides, the under surface being 
 silvery. The back dorsal fin and tail have 
 darker spots or markings ; the lateral line is 
 very strongly marked. Fin- rays, D 14 + 12. 
 p 13. v 1 + 5. A 2 + 5. c 17. 
 
 A sea fish, termed the basse, or sea-dace, 
 (Labrax lupus,} which may indeed be called a 
 sea-perch, is very common around the more 
 southern shores of our island, and abounds also 
 
THE BASSE. 59 
 
 in the Mediterranean. It was known to the 
 Greeks and Romans. The former termed it 
 lab rax, from its voracity ; the latter, lupus, or 
 wolf, for the same reason. This fish wanders 
 in shoals, and often ascends rivers, even beyond 
 the tideway ; it will, indeed, live altogether in 
 fresh water, and numbers, as Mr. Yarrell ob- 
 serves, have been retained with success in 
 Mr. Arnold's fresh water lake in Guernsey, to 
 the improvement of their excellence for the 
 table. This species is mostly taken in nets, 
 but often by hooks attached to deep sea-lines ; 
 they may be caught also during the flood-tide 
 with a long rod arid strong line, from a pier- 
 head, or other projecting situation ; they bite 
 freely, and feed on the fry of fishes, on small 
 Crustacea, and marine insects. The basse usually 
 measures from twelve to twenty inches in length, 
 but is sometimes caught weighing from ten to 
 fifteen pounds. The flesh is very good. 
 
 The general colour of the back is a dusky 
 blue, passing into silvery white beneath ; the 
 fins are pale brown ; there are two dorsal fins, 
 and, as in the perch, there are two external 
 openings to each nostril. Fin-rays, D 9. 1 + 12. 
 p 16. v 1 + 5. A 3+ 11. c 17. 
 
 Among the fishes which, from antiquity, have 
 been celebrated for their excellence, must be 
 
GO BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 ranked the striped red mullet, or striped sur- 
 mullet, (Mullus surmuletus,) a species which was 
 in high esteem at Kome, both on this account and 
 also on that of its great beauty. The red mullet 
 is common in the Mediterranean; it also visits 
 the line of our southern coast, especially during 
 May or June, when the shops of the London 
 fishmongers display great numbers in high 
 perfection. This richly coloured fish usually 
 measures from twelve to fifteen inches in length, 
 but larger specimens are occasionally taken, 
 and in the Mediterranean it is not unusual to 
 capture individuals of two pounds' weight. 
 
 In ancient times a mullet of large size was 
 an object of great admiration, and sometimes 
 even of contention. " A fish of three pounds' 
 weight," says Mr. Yarrell, "produced a con- 
 siderable sum to the fortunate fisherman ;" while 
 " the cost of a fish of four pounds and a half," 
 says Martial, " was ruinous. A mullet of six 
 pounds is recorded to have produced a sum 
 equal to 48 ; one still larger 64 ; and even 
 240 were given for three, of very unusual 
 size, procured on the same day, for a repast of 
 more than usual magnificence." The Eomans 
 kept mullets in their vivaria, or preserves, but 
 not with much success, as they do not increase 
 in size during confinement. An allied species, 
 
THE STRIPED RED MULLET. 61 
 
 of smaller size, and still greater beauty, the 
 plain red mullet, (Mullus barbatus,) the Romans 
 were accustomed to keep in vases, as we do 
 gold fish, for the sake of the richness of their 
 colouring. This species is very rare on our 
 coast ; indeed, only three or four instances of 
 its capture are on record. 
 
 The flesh of the striped red mullet is white, 
 firm, and of excellent flavour. In taking this 
 fish, the trawl net is generally employed, as this 
 species usually keeps low near the bed, asso- 
 ciated in shoals. These often shift their ground, 
 so that, although sometimes great numbers are 
 taken, at other times, the fisherman is less suc- 
 cessful. Occasionally, these fishes are captured 
 in mackerel nets, near the surface. The striped 
 red mullet has the lower jaw furnished with 
 two long barbels, or cirri ; the dorsal fin is 
 double. The general colour is pink, passing 
 into white on the under parts, with three or 
 four yellow stripes along the sides. The 
 slightest force is sufficient to remove the scales 
 of this fish, and produce an extravasation of 
 blood below the cuticle ; and hence it is that, 
 when at the fishmongers', it appears irregularly 
 marbled with purple and bright red, the result 
 of its struggles when caught. The striped red 
 mullet breeds in spring, and the young attain 
 
62 BKITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the length of five inches in the course of the 
 summer and autumn. Small Crustacea and 
 molluscous animals constitute its food. Fin- 
 rays, D 7. 1 + 8. P 17. v 1 + 5. A 2 + 6. c 13. 
 
 We may now pass on to another family, 
 termed the " hard-cheeked," from the singular 
 characters presented by the head, which is 
 armed with spines and cuirassed, or defended 
 with osseous plates, giving a peculiar aspect. 
 To this family belong the gurnards, of which 
 six species, three common, the others rare, 
 are found on our coast. In the gurnards, the 
 head is square, and covered with bony plates ; 
 the gill-covers and shoulder-plate end in a 
 spine directed backwards ; the body is elon- 
 gated ; there are two dorsal fins, the first 
 spinous ; and there are three detached rays at 
 the base of each ample pectoral fin. These 
 fishes are remarkable for the sound or grunting 
 noise they make when captured ; hence the 
 French commonly call them " grondeus." 
 
 The red, or cuckoo gurnard, (Trigla cucuius,) 
 so called from the similarity of the sound which 
 it makes, when taken out of the water, to that 
 of the cuckoo, is very common on the British 
 coasts. Like the rest of the species, it swims 
 near the bottom, and feeds on Crustacea, and 
 when captured is very tenacious of life. Be- 
 
THE SAPPHIBINE GURNARD. 63 
 
 sides the mailed appearance of the head, the 
 gurnards are remarkable for the ample de- 
 velopment of the pectoral fins, which spread 
 like a fan ; in the flying fish (Trigla volitanSj 
 Linn. ; Dactylopterus volitans^ Cuv.) the am- 
 plitude of the fins is extreme. The red gurnard 
 is excellent for the table, but seldom exceeds 
 twelve or fourteen inches in length ; it is in the 
 greatest perfection during the winter months. 
 This fish is mostly taken in trawl nets, as it 
 swims low ; it will, however, bite freely, and 
 may be caught by means of hand-lines, the 
 hooks being baited with any silvery shining 
 fish, as a piece of the sand-launce. 
 
 Another species, the sapphirine gurnard, 
 (Trigla kirundo,) is equally common, and ex- 
 ceeds the preceding in size, often measuring 
 from eighteen inches to two feet in length. 
 Its flesh is excellent when properly cooked 
 namely, stuffed, roasted, and served up with rich 
 sauce or drawn gravy. On the boards of the 
 fishmongers' shops this fish may be commonly 
 seen, with its large pectoral fins spread out or 
 tied together over its head, giving it a curious 
 appearance. The general colour of this species 
 is a brownish red ; the inner surface of the 
 pectoral fins are of a fine blue ; the head is 
 large and flat. This fish is taken by means of 
 
64 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the trawl net, in deep water ; this net is long 
 and conical, being from sixty to seventy feet in 
 extent, with a. square mouth of eighteen feet in 
 breadth ; it is dragged along by means of a 
 rope, from a sailing-boat of ten or twelve tons 1 
 burden ; in some parts, however, the trawling 
 nets used are far larger, and the vessels are of 
 seventy or eighty tons' burden, and cutter-rigged. 
 
 To the family of hard-cheeked fishes belongs 
 that well-known little tenant of rivers and 
 rivulets, the bull-head, or miller's thumb, 
 (Coitus golioj) common over the whole of 
 Europe, and noted for hiding itself among 
 loose stones, in the bed of the bubbling stream. 
 Two allied species, the sea scorpion (Coitus 
 scorpius) and the father-lasher, (Coitus bubalis,*) 
 with its head armed with spines, are common 
 on our coast. Here also must be placed the 
 sticklebacks, ( Gasterosteusj) of which seven spe- 
 cies are British, inhabiting lakes, brooks, ditches, 
 and the sea, around our shores. One species, 
 however, the fifteen-spined stickleback (G. spi- 
 nachia) rarely ascends rivers, and may be 
 regarded exclusively as a salt water fish. 
 
 The sticklebacks are remarkably rapid and 
 prompt in their movements, and dart along 
 with great celerity. They feed upon insects, 
 smalj worms, and the eggs of fishes. One of 
 
THE ROUGH-TAILED STICKLEBACK. 65 
 
 the most common, and the smallest, is the 
 rough-tailed stickleback (6r. tracliurus.) It 
 seldom exceeds two inches, or two inches and a 
 half in length, and abounds in all our ponds 
 and brooks. A writer in the Magazine of 
 Natural History gives the following description 
 of its manners in captivity, in a tub or wooden 
 vessel : " When a few are first turned in, they 
 swim about in a shoal, apparently exploring 
 their new habitation. Suddenly one wift take 
 possession of a particular corner of the tub, or, 
 as will sometimes happen, of the bottom, arid 
 will instantly commence an attack on his com- 
 panions. If any one of them ventures to oppose 
 his sway, a regular and most furious battle en- 
 sues ; the two combatants swim round and round 
 each other with the greatest rapidity, biting and 
 endeavouring to pierce each other with their 
 spines, which on these occasions are projected. 
 I have witnessed a battle of this sort which 
 lasted several minutes, before either would give 
 way ; and when one does submit, imagination 
 can hardly conceive the vindictive fury of the 
 conqueror, who, in the most persevering and 
 unrelenting way, chases his rival from one part 
 of the tub to another, until fairly exhausted 
 with fatigue. They also use their spines with 
 such fatal effect, that, incredible as it may 
 c 
 
66 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 appear, I have seen one, during a battle, abso- 
 lutely rip his opponent quite open, so that he 
 sunk to the bottom and died. I have occasion- 
 ally known three or four parts of the tub taken 
 possession of by as many other little tyrants, 
 who guard their territories with the strictest 
 vigilance, and the slightest invasion invariably 
 brings on a battle. These are the habits of the 
 male fish alone ; the females are quite pacific, 
 appear fat as if full of roe, and never assume 
 the brilliant colours of the male, by whom, as 
 far as I have observed, they are unmolested." 
 This species, and two others, have three sharp 
 dorsal spines, but the present has the sides 
 throughout their whole length defended by a 
 series of vertical bony plates, forming a coat of 
 mail ; in the two others, the sides are only more 
 or less partially defended. In some places, 
 sticklebacks are so numerous that they are 
 caught in order to be strewed over the land by 
 way of manure. 
 
 Another family is termed Sci&nidce, or that 
 of the maigres ; and we may take that cele- 
 brated fish, the maigre, (Scicena aquila^) as an 
 example. This fish can scarcely be termed 
 British, its appearance on our coast being acci- 
 dental. It is most abundant along the southern 
 side of the Mediterranean, but is taken off the 
 
THE MAIGRE. 67 
 
 shores of Spain, France, and Italy. At Genoa, 
 it is termed fegaro, and at Nice, figou and 
 vanloo. The maigre is gregarious in its habits, 
 swimming in shoals, which utter a purring 
 noise so loud as to be heard from a depth of 
 twenty fathoms ; and from this circumstance, 
 the fishermen are often enabled to take several 
 in their net with certainty, their noise betray- 
 ing their exact locality. Their capture, how- 
 ever, is not a very safe or easy task, for the 
 maigre is from three to six feet and upwards in 
 length, very strong and resolute, and it struggles 
 with the utmost desperation, knocking the men 
 about, till one of them can manage to strike it 
 a heavy blow on the head, and so deprive it of 
 life. " Rondeletius," observes Mr. Yarrell, 
 u calls this species pels rei" * (royal fish.) It 
 appears always to have been in great request 
 with epicures ; and as, on account of its large 
 size, it was always sold in pieces, the fishermen 
 of Rome were in the habit of presenting the 
 head, which was considered as the finest part, as 
 a sort of tribute to the three local magistrates, 
 who acted for the time as conservators of the 
 city." It is the umbrina of the ancient Romans. 
 The umbrina is of a general silvery grey, 
 inclining to brown on the back, and pure silver 
 * It is termed peurey, in Languedoc. 
 
68 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 on the under parts ; the fins are reddish. There 
 are two dorsal fins. 
 
 An allied species, the bearded umbrina, 
 (Umbrina vulgaris,) with a short barbule at 
 the tip of the lower jaw, inhabits the same 
 seas as the maigre, and is also celebrated 
 for the excellence of its flesh. It is, how- 
 ever, much smaller than the latter, seldom 
 exceeding two feet in length. It is covered 
 with large scales. The general hue of the 
 body is yellowish, with oblique lines on each 
 side, from the back downwards and forwards 
 of silver and blue. 
 
 To a family called Sparidce, or the sea- 
 breams, belongs the red gilt-head, or common 
 sea-bream, (Pagellus centrodontatus,) a common 
 fish in the Mediterranean, and tolerably abun- 
 dant on the western and southern coasts of 
 England, and on the adjacent coasts of France. 
 It occurs also on many parts of the Irish coast. 
 During the summer and autumn, it is fre- 
 quently taken by the Hastings fishermen, and 
 may be seen in the fish-market. It is, however, 
 in but little request for the table. In this fish, 
 the teeth in front are conical, slender, and 
 numerous ; the others are numerous, stout, 
 rounded, and in close array, consequently they 
 are well adapted for masticating sea-weeds, and 
 
THE MACKEREL. 69 
 
 crushing crabs and shell-fish, on which the 
 sea-bream chiefly feeds. 
 
 The general colour of this fish is reddish, 
 tinged with . grey, passing into golden grey on 
 the sides, and white underneath. At the origin 
 of the lateral line, behind the edge of the gill 
 covers, is a dusky patch, consisting of closely 
 set spots or prickles. Two narrow stripes on 
 each side behind the head meet above in the 
 central line, and faint longitudinal bands run 
 along the sides of the body. Pectoral fins and 
 tail red, the other fins brownish. The young 
 fish, called chads, are destitute of the lateral 
 dusky spot. This fish breeds in winter, and 
 during the spring and summer shoals of chads, 
 about six inches in length, abound along our 
 coast. 
 
 Passing over several other fishes of the bream 
 family, we come to that termed Sconiberidce, of 
 which that well-known and beautiful fish, the 
 mackerel, or mackarel, (Scomber scombrus^) is an 
 example. We need say nothing of the dazzling 
 effulgence and elegant markings of this fish, 
 when fresh from the sea, nor of the excellence 
 of its flesh for the table. 
 
 The mackerel abounds in the seas of Europe, 
 but at certain seasons approaches the shallow 
 water near the shores, collected together in vast 
 
70 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 shoals, the great object being the deposition of 
 the roe or eggs, in places suitable for the deve- 
 lopment of the young. As a general rule, fishes 
 leave the deep water at the breeding season 
 for shallower spots, where the influence of the 
 sun and light extends to the bed of the water ; 
 and when the spawning season is over, they 
 again retire to the deep. The mackerel visits 
 our shores at different times, earlier or later 
 in different parts of the coast. Shoals often 
 appear on the shores of Hampshire arid Sussex 
 in March, or even the early part of February ; 
 but the great harvest is in May and June. At 
 Hastings, it is observed that the shoals of 
 mackerel follow in the train of clouds of small 
 fish, called the mackerel mint, which Mr. Yar- 
 rell suspects to be the young of the sprat. On 
 these, and on the fry of other fish, the mackerel 
 subsists. 
 
 The arrival of the mackerel shoals produces 
 no little bustle and excitement in the various 
 fishing-towns of our coast every boat's crew 
 strives to be the foremost in exertion, for 
 the first cargoes are of the highest value. All 
 is animation the arrivals and departures of 
 boats give life to the port, nor are the men on 
 shore less occupied and active than the fisher- 
 men in the offing. The following extract from 
 
THE MACKEREL. 71 
 
 Mr. YarrelFs admirable work will serve to 
 show the causes of the bustle and excitement at 
 this juncture : 
 
 " In May, 1807, the first Brighton boat-load 
 of mackerel sold at Billingsgate for forty 
 guineas per hundred seven shillings each, 
 reckoning six score to the hundred ; the highest 
 price ever known at that market. The next 
 boat-load produced but thirteen guineas per 
 hundred. Mackerel were so plentiful at Dover, 
 in 1808, that they were sold sixty for a shilling. 
 At Brighton, in June of the same year, the 
 shoal of mackerel was so great, that one of the 
 boats had the meshes of her nets so completely 
 occupied with them, that it was impossible to 
 drag them in ; the fish and nets, therefore, in 
 the end sank together ; the fishermen thereby 
 sustaining a loss of nearly 60, exclusive of 
 what the cargo, could it have been got into the 
 boat, would have produced. The success of 
 the fishery of 1821 was beyond all precedent. 
 The value of the catch of sixteen boats from 
 Lowestoft, on the SOth of June, amounted to 
 5,252 ; and it is supposed that there was no less 
 an amount than 14,000 altogether realized 
 by the owners and men concerned in the fishery 
 of the Suffolk coast. In March, 1833, four 
 Hastings' boats on one day brought on shore 
 
72 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 ten thousand eight hundred mackerel, and the 
 next day two boats brought seven thousand 
 fish. Early in the month of February, 1834, 
 one boat's crew from Hastings cleared 100 
 by the fish caught in one night, and a large 
 quantity of very fine mackerel appeared in the 
 London market in the second week of the same 
 month. They were cried through the streets 
 of London three for a shilling, on the 14th and 
 22nd of March, 1834, and had then been plen- 
 tiful for a month. The boats engaged in fishing 
 are usually attended by other fast sailing 
 vessels, which are sent away with the fish 
 taken. From some situations these vessels sail 
 away direct for the London market ; at others, 
 they make for the nearest point from -which 
 they can obtain land-carriage for their fish. 
 From Hastings and other fishing towns on the 
 Sussex coast, the fish are brought to London 
 by vans, which travel all night.' 7 
 
 Different modes of fishing are employed in the 
 capture of mackerel ; one mode is by means of 
 drift nets united together, which hang in the sea 
 perpendicularly about twenty feet deep, stretch- 
 ing out like a curtain for a mile or mile and a 
 half. The meshes of such nets are large enough 
 to admit the entrance of head, gills, and pectoral 
 fins, but too small to permit the rest of the body 
 
THE MACKEREL. 73 
 
 to pass. This long series of nets is let down in 
 the evening, and usually not drawn up till the 
 morning ; the shoals roving in darkness through 
 the water strike the meshes of fine twine, and 
 as the fishes rush impetuously along, multitudes 
 become firmly fixed, and are secured when the 
 nets are hauled up by means of a capstan on 
 deck. On the coast of Cornwall, a long deep 
 net, with small meshes, managed by two boats, 
 is brought round so as to inclose the shoal, or 
 at least a large portion of it, and when the circle 
 is made, the men draw it together at the top 
 and bottom, and the fish thus confined are 
 either hauled on deck, or, where the circum- 
 stances will admit, drawn up on the beach. 
 
 Mackerel bite freely at a bait, and numbers 
 are taken by the hook ; a slip of fish and a bit of 
 red leather, or of red cloth, are among the baits 
 commonly used ; the line is sunk by means of 
 a plummet, with a portion free beyond the 
 plummet, at the end of which is the hook ; the 
 boat is carried forwards by the breeze, the 
 plummet hanging at a proper distance above 
 the bottom of the water keeps the line steady, 
 but trails after it the baited hook, which the fish 
 dart at to seize ; in this manner, if the breeze be 
 smart, and the weather gloomy, two men will 
 take from five or six hundred to a thousand 
 c2 
 
74 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 in a single day. When taken out of the 
 water, the mackerel dies almost instantly. Few 
 of these fishes are salted in England, but 
 in France great numbers thus prepared are 
 made use of. The spring fishing-boats carry 
 out salt with them for this purpose, and cure 
 the fish on board. Young mackerel of the 
 year are called shiners ; excluded from the egg 
 in May or June, they increase rapidly in size, 
 and by the middle of autumn measure from 
 four to six inches long ; on the approach of 
 winter they retire to the deep water. 
 
 There is a larger species, termed the Spanish 
 mackerel, (Scomber colias,) which occasionally 
 visits various portions of our coast, especially 
 that of Cornwall, but the fishermen take no 
 notice of it, as it is in no estimation., 
 
 A large species of the mackerel family, 
 namely, the far famed tunny, (Thynnus vulga- 
 riSj) common in the Mediterranean, occasionally 
 visits our coast, and a few from time to time are 
 captured, and sent into the market for sale. 
 
 The tunny attains to a considerable size, and 
 though small specimens, of three or four feet in 
 length only, are most usually taken in our seas, 
 yet specimens of ten, fifteen, and eighteen feet 
 in length are not uncommon in the Mediterra- 
 nean. " This fish," says Cuvier, " may be re- 
 
THE TUNNY. 75 
 
 garded as constituting a portion of the wealth 
 of Prover^e, Sardinia, and Sicily ; " the tunny 
 fishery, as in the days of antiquity, is most im- 
 portant, and its flesh maintains its pristine 
 reputation. 
 
 In May and June, the tunny, in vast shoals, 
 leaves the deep water, and approaches the 
 shore, which it skirts along, seeking for conve- 
 nient breeding places ; and now along the 
 coasts of Languedoc, Prove^e and Sicily, 
 begin the fishery, and all is animation and 
 excitement. Two modes are ' employed. On 
 the signal being given, by a sentinel stationed 
 for the purpose, of the approach of a shoal of 
 these valuable fishes, and who at the same 
 time indicates its course, a number of boats, 
 under the command of a leader, station them- 
 selves so as to form part of a circle, and join 
 their nets, adding more and more nets as may 
 be required, till the terrified fish are hemmed 
 up in an in closure, which is gradually drawn 
 towards the shallow water, near the edge of the 
 shore. Here a large net, with a cone-shaped 
 tunnel, is made use of to receive the fish, and is 
 dragged upon the beach with its heavy burden. 
 The young and small tunnies are, however, 
 ta,ken out in the arms of the fishermen, and the 
 large ones are killed with poles. 
 
76 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 The other mode is called in Italian tonnaro, 
 and in ProvenQe madrague. Parallel with the 
 shore, along which the shoals take their course, 
 a net, extending for a mile, is fixed vertically 
 by means of corks along its upper margin, 
 and weights along its lower edge, and kept in 
 its position by anchors ; it thus forms a sort 
 of netted wall ; from this wall to the coast are 
 drawn numerous cross nets, dividing the space 
 into many chambers, having narrow openings 
 of communication on the land side. Proceed- 
 ing along, between the long net wall and the 
 shore, the fishes are soon stopped by one of 
 the cross nets ; instead of turning back, they 
 enter into the chamber by the narrow opening 
 left for them ; having entered, they are driven 
 by the fishermen from chamber to chamber till 
 they enter the last, which is floored with a 
 strong net, so fixed as to be capable of being 
 raised or lowered. About this chamber of 
 death, the fishermen, armed with long poles, 
 collect in boats, and the unequal conflict 
 begins. The net flooring is raised ; the 
 floundering of the devoted tunnies, the shouts 
 of the men, the splashing of the long poles, as 
 they rain blows on the crowded fish, constitute 
 a scene which forms one of the greatest amuse- 
 ments of the people of Sicily, and the southern 
 
THE TUNNY. 77 
 
 coast of France. The flesh of the tunny is 
 red, and as firm as veal ; it is dressed in 
 various ways ; slices are boiled or fried ; it is 
 made into ragouts ; it is put into pies or pates, 
 celebrated by the epicures of France ; it is 
 converted into a sort of pickle, with salt and 
 oil, and this preparation, under the term of 
 thon marine, is eaten cold. It is also cured by 
 being cut into slices and packed in barrels with 
 pounded salt. 
 
 In its general figure the tunny resembles a 
 huge mackerel, but with a shorter head. The 
 colour of the upper parts of the body is dark 
 blue ; numerous large scales of a paler colour 
 form a corslet around the thorax or chest ; the 
 sides of the head are white ; the under-parts 
 are grey, variegated with silvery white mark- 
 ings. The first dorsal fin, the pectoral and 
 ventral fins, are black ; the rest pale pink, with 
 a silvery tinge ; tail fin dusky ; the sides . of 
 the tail are carinated, crooked, or bent like 
 the keel of a ship. Several allied species, 
 as the alicosti, the tonine, are found in the 
 Mediterranean. The bonito of the tropics 
 belongs to the same genus. 
 
 There is another fish taken in the Mediter- 
 ranean with the tunny, distinguished as the 
 representative of a distinct genus only by the 
 
78 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 enormous length of its pectoral fins. This fish 
 is called La German in the Basque language, and 
 Alalongaby the Italians, (Orcynusalalonga,Cu.v.) 
 In spring and summer, vast shoals of this fish 
 enter the Gulf of Gascony, where immense 
 numbers are regularly taken. This fish often 
 weighs eighty pounds ; its flesh is more white 
 than that of the tunny. It is of a dark blue 
 above, passing into silvery on the under surface. 
 
 On various parts of our coast, especially the 
 southern, a fish called the scad or horse-mack- 
 erel, (Garanx trachurus,) is often very abundant, 
 and occasionally seen in enormous shoals. In 
 July, 1834, as Mr. Yarrell informs us, most 
 extraordinary shoals passed up the channel 
 along the coast of Glamorganshire ; their pas- 
 sage occupied a week, and they were evidently 
 in pursuit of the fry of the herring. The 
 water appeared one dark mass offish, and they 
 were caught by cart-loads, and might even be 
 baled out of the water by the hands alone. 
 
 In the west of Cornwall, scad are caught and 
 salted like mackerel, for winter consumption; 
 but in other places the fishermen do not deem 
 them worthy of any especial notice, nor do they 
 often appear in the London markets, as they 
 are very inferior to the mackerel ; occasionally, 
 however, they are to be purchased. The scad 
 
THE JOHN DORY. 79 
 
 averages twelve or fourteen inches iii length ; 
 tlie body is covered with small scales, with the 
 exception of the lateral line, which exhibits a 
 series of large broad scales, producing a singu- 
 lar appearance ; those more especially of the 
 posterior half of the body have a central ridge 
 or keel, and each overlapping margin in succes- 
 sion is pointed. The appearance is as if a 
 stripe of plate-armour ran along each side of 
 the body. The general colour above is dusky 
 olive, with iridescent green, and a bluish wavy 
 gloss ; the sides of the head and the surface 
 below the lateral line are silvery, with waved 
 reflexions ; a large spot on the gill-covers and 
 the throat are black ; upper fins dusky ; lower 
 fins whitish. 
 
 That singularly compressed and deep fish, 
 the John Dory, of epicurean renown, belongs 
 to the present family. The derivation of the 
 name of this species (Zeusfaber, Linn.) is doubt- 
 ful ; the Italian fishermen term it II janitore,* 
 or the gatekeeper ; the French Jaune doree, 
 (gilded yellow,) or simply Le Doree, or Pois- 
 
 * This name is an allusion to St. Peter, who took the tri- 
 bute money from the fish at the command of our Lord, and 
 who, in Roman Catholic countries, is supposed to bear the 
 keys of heaven ; a black spot on each side the fish is super- 
 stitiously imagined to indicate the pressure of the apostle's 
 thumb and finger but the haddock may on this account put 
 in a claim. 
 
80 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 son- Saint- Pierre. The term may be a corrup- 
 tion of either janitor e or jaune doree. Pennant 
 calls this fish the Doree. To the ancients it was 
 known by the name of Zeus, or Jupiter. 
 
 On our coast, the dory is found along Hamp- 
 shire and Sussex, Cornwall and Devonshire, 
 occasionally it is taken off Yarmouth, and more 
 rarely still further north. It visits some part 
 of the Irish coast, but not, we believe, in abun- 
 dance. It is common around the French and 
 Spanish coasts, and in the Mediterranean. It 
 is said to follow the shoals of pilchards, on 
 which it preys ; it also devours small cuttle-fish. 
 Autumn and winter are the principal seasons 
 in which it is taken ; its flesh is firm, and re- 
 garded as improved by keeping for a few days. 
 
 As its form sufficiently indicates, the dory 
 is by no means rapid in its movements ; 
 it wanders leisurely through the deep water, 
 often drifting with the current, though it can, 
 no doubt, exert itself vigorously enough when 
 prompted by its appetite. 
 
 The head of this fish is large and inelegant ; 
 the body is much compressed, and of an oval 
 form ; the spines of the first dorsal fin are pro- 
 jecting, and accompanied by long filaments, and 
 there are spinous scales along the dorsal and 
 ventral edges. The mouth is armed with 
 
THE GREY MULLET. 81 
 
 numerous teeth, and capable of great protrusion. 
 The general colour of the body is olive brown, 
 tinged with golden yellow, and with reflexions 
 of blue and silvery on each side ; a little behind 
 each gill- cover is a circular mark of black. 
 
 To a family termed Mugilidce belongs the 
 grey mullet, (Mugil capita,) a common fish on 
 our coasts, and on those of the adjacent conti- 
 nent. Along the shores of Essex, Kent, and 
 Sussex this fish abounds, extending to Cornwall 
 and Devonshire. It prefers shallows near the 
 shore to the deep, and is extremely active and 
 vigorous, leaping with great address ; it thus 
 often throws itself over the head-line of the 
 sweep-net which surrounds it, and so makes its 
 escape. It is not, however, to the salt water 
 that the grey mullet confines itself ; it enters the 
 mouths of rivers, advancing above the tideway 
 into the fresh stream, and has been found up 
 the Arun twenty miles from the sea. An 
 Arundel mullet is celebrated. This fish will 
 indeed not only live, but thrive in purely fresh 
 .water ; we learn from Mr. Yarrell that Mr. 
 Arnold put a number of the fry of the grey 
 mullet into his pond at Guernsey, which covers 
 an area ot about three acres, and that, after a 
 few years, fish weighing four pounds were 
 taken, which proved to be fatter, deeper, and 
 
82 BRITISH FISH AND FISHEKIES 
 
 heavier for their length than others obtained 
 from the sea. 
 
 Mr. Couch says : " The grey mullet selects 
 food that is soft and fat, or such as has begun 
 to suffer decomposition ; in search of which it is 
 often seen thrusting its mouth into the soft 
 mud, and for selecting it its lips appear to be 
 furnished with exquisite sensibility of taste, 
 It is indeed the only fish of which I am able to 
 express my belief, that it usually selects for food 
 nothing that has life, although it sometimes 
 swallows the common sand-worm." 
 
 The grey mullet breeds at Midsummer. In 
 its form this fish is nearly cylindrical ; the 
 scales are large ; the dorsal fins are two, and 
 widely separated, fin-rays of the first spinous ; 
 the under-jaw is produced into an elevated 
 angular point, received into a corresponding 
 notch in the centre of the upper jaw ; nostrils 
 double. General colour above blueish grey, 
 sides and under parts silvery, with several lon- 
 gitudinal dusky lines. Two additional British 
 species are described, both very rare, namely, 
 the thick-lipped grey mullet, (Mugil 
 and the short grey mullet, (Mugil 
 Yarrell.) 
 
 Along some parts of our southern coast, and 
 especially that of Sussex and Hampshire, and 
 
THE ATHERINE. 83 
 
 also of Devonshire and Cornwall, a fish called 
 the atherine, or sand-smelt, ( Atherina presbyter,) 
 sometimes confounded with the true smelt,* 
 and sold as such at Southampton, is very abun- 
 dant. It possesses in a slight degree the 
 cucumber smell of the true smelt, and though 
 far inferior to the latter, is nevertheless when 
 in full roe a delicate little fish ; in spring it is 
 in perfection, but great numbers are caught 
 during the winter months, and throughout 
 this season Brighton and other towns on the 
 same line of coast are plentifully supplied. 
 
 The atherine prefers quiet sandy bays, and 
 tranquil water to the turbulent deep, and in 
 stormy weather numbers are occasionally 
 washed on shore. 
 
 Various modes of fishing are adopted in the 
 capture of this silvery little fish, but the most 
 common way is by means of a sweep-net with 
 small meshes, by which the shoal is inclosed. 
 In the atherine, the first dorsal fin has eight 
 spring rays, the second one spring ray, and 
 twelve cartilaginous. In the true smelt, the 
 second dorsal fin is rayless and fleshy as in the 
 salmon. The general colour of the atherine 
 along the sides is of a glistening silvery white. 
 The upper part of the back and head are 
 
 * The true smelt belongs to the salmon and trout r amily. 
 
84 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 sprinkled with small blackish spots. Common 
 as this fish is, it is not very frequently brought 
 to the London market, which is abundantly 
 supplied with the true smelt. 
 
 Occasionally in the fish-markets or shops in 
 London are to be seen specimens of a ferocious 
 looking fish, called the wolf-fish, sea-wolf, or 
 sea-cat, (Anarrhichas lupus.) It belongs to the 
 family of the Gobies, (Gobio'idce.) 
 
 This strange repulsive fish has an elongated 
 body, covered with small scales ; a long dorsal 
 fin extends down the whole of the back. There 
 are 110 ventral fins, and the pectorals are com- 
 paratively small, the head short and rounded, 
 and the markings of it, together with the position 
 of the glaring eyes, and the long sharp curved 
 front teeth, give a fierce cat-like expression. 
 The back teeth and those of the palate are in 
 close array, thick and tubercular, or rounded, 
 and well adapted for crushing crabs, lobsters, 
 and shell-fish. One of these fishes, of about 
 four feet long, the writer lately saw in London. 
 It attains, however, to the length of six or eight 
 feet, or even more. The wolf-fish is a native 
 of the high northern seas, and is common along 
 the shores of Greenland and Iceland ; yet it not 
 unfrequently appears on different parts of our 
 coast, especially those of Scotland, Yorkshire, 
 
THE WOLF-FISH. 85 
 
 etc., and it is far from being uncommon among 
 the Orkneys. 
 
 Notwithstanding its repulsive appearance, 
 the flesh of this fish is a delicacy ; in the 
 countries of Norway, Sweden, etc., the head 
 and the thick slimy skin are removed pre- 
 viously to any culinary operations, and the 
 latter is converted into serviceable bags, and 
 other articles. 
 
 The wolf-fish is really as ferocious as its 
 aspect indicates ; when inclosed in a net, either 
 by accident or by the temptation which the 
 imprisoned crowd offers to its voracity, it makes, 
 on discovering its peril, the most desperate 
 efforts for escape ; it rushes against the meshes, 
 endeavouring to break through, it tries to rend 
 the cordage, and often succeeds, and should it 
 fail, it fights and snaps with tremendous fury, 
 even when hauled on board the boat, struggling 
 till the blow of a heavy handspike on the head 
 deprives it of motion or existence. 
 
 From the length of the body the fish swims 
 with an undulatory motion, and with great 
 vigour ; the female deposits her eggs near the 
 shore, in June. The general colour of this 
 tyrant of the seas is brownish grey, with darker 
 vertical bands on the back, and intermediate 
 spots ; the under snrfnoo is whitish ; a trian- 
 
86 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 gular, dusky mark occupies the top of the head, 
 pointing between the eyes. 
 
 Another ferocious fish, the type of a distinct 
 family, having the pectoral fins feet-like, is 
 often found on our shores ; we allude to the 
 angler, or fishing-frog, (Lophiiis piscatorius.) 
 In this hideous fish, the head is of enormous 
 size, and depressed, or flattened ; the mouth is 
 of vast width and capacity, but the body is 
 slender ; the eyes are placed with an upward 
 aspect, on the top of the huge broad head ; the 
 jaws, the palate, and tongue are armed with 
 long, sharp, recurved teeth ; the edge of the 
 lower jaw is fringed all round. On the top of 
 the head are three long filaments, in the median 
 line ; of these two are seated just above the 
 muzzle, the other rises from the back of the 
 head. These elongated filaments are supported 
 by bone, and are movable in all directions, 
 especially the first, which, tapering like the 
 finest fishing-rod, ends in a broad flattened 
 silvery tip, abundantly supplied by nerves. 
 The pectoral fins are broad and thick, and 
 serve the office ot hind feet, for the ventral fins, 
 palmate in form, are placed far anterior to them 
 on the body. 
 
 The angler is insatiably voracious, but it is a 
 slow swimmer; it is, in fact, formed for taking 
 
THE ANGLER, OR FISHING-FROG. 87 
 
 its prey in ambush. It reposes on the soft 
 mud or sand, in some favourable lurking-place, 
 and, stirring up the mud with its pectoral fins, 
 thus obscures itself in a murky cloud, beyond 
 which appear its long filaments, and especially 
 the first, with its glittering tip, offering an 
 attractive bait to other fish. Thus stationed, 
 quietly the angler expects his victim. On rove 
 the shoals of fish, eager in quest of food ; they 
 pass one after another in succession, till at 
 length one espies the bait ; forward the fish 
 darts, either to examine or seize the anticipated 
 prize, but at that instant, aided by the broad 
 feet-like pectoral fins, up springs the watchful 
 angler, and seizes his unwary victim. Such is 
 the success of this voracious tyrant, that the 
 fishermen, who often capture it in their nets, 
 examine its stomach, and sometimes obtain 
 from it a considerable number of serviceable 
 fish, yet alive, which it had just engulphed ; 
 nay, even when inclosed in the net, it continues 
 to the last to devour its fellow-prisoners. It is 
 not, however, always that the angler thus ob- 
 tains his food ; he is sometimes seen floating on 
 the surface, ready to snap at whatever prey 
 comes within his sudden dart. Sometimes this 
 fish is taken by means of a baited hook in 
 mid- water ; but it is most usually captured by 
 
88 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 means of the net, which occasionally incloses 
 more than one at a sweep. 
 
 The angler measures from three to five feet 
 in length ; its colour is a dirty brown. It is 
 found in most of the seas of Europe, and may 
 often be seen in the fishmongers' shops. 
 
 Several species of fish, called wrasse, or rock- 
 fish, (Fam. Idbridce,) are common on our coast, 
 and those of the adjacent continent. They are 
 remarkable for the beauty of their colours, their 
 thin large scales, their great thick lips, and 
 their numerous and conspicuous teeth. They 
 generally haunt rocky shores, dwelling in deep 
 gullies between masses of rock, and under the 
 covert of the long fronds of sea- weed. They 
 feed on small crabs, and other Crustacea, but 
 are in no request for the table. 
 
THE CARP. 89 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FISHES WITH SOFT FIN-RAYS, AND THE VENTRAL 
 FINS REMOTE FROM THE PECTORAL. 
 
 THE second order of osseous fishes is termed 
 Malacopterygii, that is, fishes having the fin-rays 
 almost universally flexible, excepting that in 
 some, as the carp, the first and second ray of 
 the dorsal fin, and first ray of the opposite fin, 
 are bony and strong. 
 
 In the first section, termed Abdominales, the 
 ventral fins are suspended under the abdomen, 
 considerably beyond the pectoral fins. 
 
 To this subdivision belong the Cyprinidce, or 
 family of the carps, of which we may take the 
 well-known common carp as an example. The 
 carp, so abundant at the present day in the 
 ponds, lakes, and sluggish rivers of our island, 
 is not an aboriginal of England ; we know not, 
 however, at what period it was introduced, nor 
 from what part of the continent, but most pro- 
 bably from France or Italy, and certainly before 
 
90 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the fifteenth century, since it is noticed as a 
 dainty fish in the "Boke of St. Albans," printed 
 in 1496. Perhaps we owe its introduction to 
 some of the Norman settlers here, soon after 
 the conquest. In Scotland, in Eussia, and othei 
 cold parts of Europe, the carp either refuses 
 to breed or does not even exist. In Austria and 
 Prussia, however, where this fish is in great 
 request, as, indeed, are many other fresh-water 
 fishes, it abounds in ponds and preserves, which 
 are let by the owners, at considerable profit. 
 In Ireland, it is believed that carp were not 
 introduced till the times of James i. At what- 
 ever time, or under whatever superintendence 
 the carp became naturalized in our country, it 
 soon thronged the fish-ponds attached as needful 
 appendages to the monasteries, and thence 
 began to be considered as one of the delicacies 
 of the table, though the dry fibrous flesh of 
 this fish is, in our opinion, anything but agree- 
 able. However, if our readers will follow 
 Walton's directions, they may render it palat- 
 able : " Take a carp, alive if possible, scour 
 him and rub him clean with salt and water, 
 but scale him not ; then open him, and put him, 
 with his blood and liver, which you must save 
 when you open him, into a small pot or kettle ; 
 then take sweet marjoram, thyme, and parsley, 
 
THE CARP. 91 
 
 of each half a handful, a sprig of rosemary and 
 another of savory. Bind them in two or three 
 bundles, and put them to your carp, with four 
 or five whole onions, twenty pickled oysters, 
 and three anchovies ; then pour upon your 
 carp as much claret wine as will only cover 
 him, and season your claret well with salt, 
 cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges and 
 lemons ; that done, cover your pot and set it on 
 a quick fire, till it be sufficiently boiled ; then 
 take out the carp, and lay it with the broth on 
 a dish, and pour upon it a quarter of a pound 
 of the best fresh butter, melted and beaten 
 with half a dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the 
 yolks of two or three eggs, and some of the 
 herbs shred. Garnish your dish with lemons, 
 and so serve it up, and much good may it 
 do you." 
 
 Worms, the larvae of insects, and the tender 
 leaves of aquatic plants, constitute the food of 
 the carp ; they will also eat bread-crumbs, and 
 in small ponds may be rendered very familiar. 
 During the winter, these fish retreat to deep 
 holes under banks, and bury themselves in the 
 mud. Fishing for carp is a work of patience. 
 This fish attains to a great age, even to a hun- 
 dred or a hundred and fifty years, and often 
 acquires an enormous size. Mr. Yarrell states, 
 
92 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 that in 1793, at the fishing of the large piece of 
 water at Stourhead, where a thousand brace of 
 killing carp were taken, the largest was thirty 
 inches long, upwards of twenty-two broad, and 
 weighed eighteen pounds. " At Weston Hall, 
 Stafford shire, the seat of the earl of Bradford, 
 the painting of a carp is preserved, which 
 weighed nineteen and a half pounds ;" it was 
 caught in a lake of twenty-six acres, called the 
 White Sitch, on the estate. Other instances of 
 huge carp are on record. 
 
 The carp, with its large scales resplendent 
 with golden brown, is too well known to need a 
 description. It is extremely prolific, and is so 
 tenacious of life, that it may be kept for days 
 on a basket of moss, freely saturated with 
 water. There is a small barbule at each corner 
 of the mouth. 
 
 An allied naturalized species, the Crucian 
 carp, or Prussian carp, (Cyprinus gibelio,) is 
 found in some of our sheets of water, and in 
 various parts of the Thames. This species has 
 no barbules at the mouth ; it is extremely 
 beautiful, being of a brilliant golden metallic 
 lustre. In general habits, it agrees with the 
 preceding species. 
 
 Another species, too well known to be de- 
 scribed, is the beautiful gold carp, or gold-fish, 
 
THE BARBEL. 93 
 
 (Cyprinus auratus,) originally brought from 
 China. It is commonly kept in vases for orna- 
 ment, and also in ponds and tanks in pleasure- 
 grounds, where, if thoroughly sheltered from 
 the cold, it breeds freely. We have known 
 engine-ponds, into which warm water from the 
 steam-engine flows, keeping up a milk- warm 
 temperature, thronged with these beautiful 
 fishes. At the Cape of Good Hope, and in the 
 Mauritius, this fish is completely naturalized. 
 The young of this species are at first black, or 
 very dusky, and only acquire their golden tint 
 by degrees. Small tanks of wood in hot- 
 houses, or conservatories for aquatic plants, 
 may be often seen thronged with these fish, 
 where they freely breed. They are easily ren- 
 dered familiar. 
 
 In many of our rivers, and especially in the 
 Thames, a fish termed the barbel (Barbus vul- 
 garis) is very common. It is said to derive 
 this name from its four barbs, or barbules, on 
 the upper lip. This fish is of handsome form, 
 and grows to a considerable size, occasionally 
 weighing from ten to fifteen pounds. 
 
 The barbel is gregarious in its habits, and is 
 swift and vigorous. During the summer, these 
 fish frequent the shallower parts of the river, 
 and the female, in May or June, deposits her 
 
94 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 eggs in the gravel. Though very shy, they 
 are said to be extremely sportive, darting with 
 the .utmost ease up the most rapid current, 
 Worms, the larvae of insects, and small fishes, 
 are their ordinary food, and they love to lurk 
 among weeds, digging in the mud with their * 
 nose, probably in quest of prey. On the 
 approach of winter they seek the deeper parts 
 of the river, and shelter themselves in holes 
 under the bank, or the wood-work of locks, 
 dams, or weirs, and similar situations. In 
 severely cold weather, they sink into a state of 
 partial torpidity, and may be captured by 
 means of a landing-net, without attempting to 
 escape. 
 
 The colour of the barbel above is olive 
 brown, passing into yellowish green on the 
 sides ; the gill-covers are tinged with bronze, 
 the fins of the lower parts are flesh colour. 
 
 Among the smaller fishes of our sandy ; or 
 gravelly streams and rivers, we may notice that 
 pretty little fish the gudgeon, which, were its 
 size equal to the delicacy of its flesh, would be 
 in considerable request. As it is, numbers are 
 taken in nets by the Thames fishermen, and 
 kept alive in well-boats for sale. They may 
 also be frequently seen alive in stone or leaden 
 tanks in the shops of the fishmongers. 
 
THE TENCH. 95 
 
 The gudgeon is gregarious, wandering about 
 in shoals, and feeding upon worms, the larvse 
 of insects, and the eggs of fishes. Few fish 
 bite more freely ; two or three dozen, indeed, 
 may be often taken in the course of an hour. 
 This fish seldom exceeds five or six inches 
 in length. As it is well known, no detailed 
 description is necessary. It breeds in May, 
 depositing its eggs among loose stones and 
 gravel. 
 
 The deep pits, ponds, lakes, and still, sluggish 
 rivers of England, (and also of some few parts 
 of Scotland and Ireland,) present us with the 
 tench, (Tenca vulgaris,) a deep-bodied slimy 
 fish, with minute scales, and decidedly superior 
 for the table to the carp. This fish appears, 
 like the carp, to have been at some period in- 
 troduced and naturalized in our island, but 
 we have no data respecting it. The most con- 
 genial abodes of this fish are deep drainage 
 ponds of soft water, with a muddy bottom, hav- 
 ing a luxuriant border of aquatic plants, with 
 abundance of pond-weed throughout. In such 
 pits or ponds, it thrives and multiplies greatly, 
 often attaining to a considerable size, and the 
 weight of two or three pounds. Occasionally it 
 is said to taste rankly of some kind of weed or 
 mud ; but specimens of this fish, from some of 
 
96 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the muddiest ponds in Essex, which a few 
 months since were placed before the writer at 
 table, were of very superior flavour, and finely 
 grown. Their colour, for he saw them w r hen 
 alive, was very dark, with a pink tinge about 
 and under the pectoral fins.* 
 
 The tench breeds in June and July ; of its 
 fecundity we may form some estimate, when we 
 learn from Bloch, that in a fish of four pounds 7 
 weight he found nearly three hundred thou- 
 sand eggs composing the roe. Nothing is more 
 easy than to stock appropriate ponds with this 
 excellent fish, to which the carp is most decidedly 
 inferior. The male fish is at once distinguish- 
 able from the female, by the large size of the 
 ventral fins ; the proportion of the males 
 should be double to that of the females, and 
 well-grown specimens should be selected. The 
 food of the tench consists of worms, larvae, and 
 various vegetable matters. During the winter, 
 these fishes retire to holes and snug recesses, 
 and stir but little, indeed, they are not among 
 the most active of their tribe at any time ; 
 sometimes they get blocked up in their retreats, 
 but this is of little consequence, for such is 
 
 * It is remarkable that Mr. Yarrell quotes a similar state- 
 ment by Daniel, respecting tench taken at Munden Hall Fleet, 
 in Essex, 
 
THE TENCH. 97 
 
 tlieir vitality, that as long as they are bedewed 
 with water and their gills kept wet, they will 
 live and feed on what chance throws in their 
 way. Daniel, in his Eural Sports, gives a 
 curious confirmation of these facts, which is 
 quoted by Mr. Yarrell, and may well be re- 
 peated here, as it is on undoubted authority. 
 " A piece of water, which had been ordered to 
 be filled up, and into which wood and rubbish 
 had been thrown for years, was directed to be 
 cleaned out. Persons were accordingly em- 
 ployed ; and almost choked up by weeds and 
 mud, so little water remained that no person 
 expected to see any fish, except a few eels ; yet 
 nearly two hundred brace of tench of all sizes, 
 and as many perch, were found. After the 
 pond was thought to be quite free, under some 
 roots there seemed to be an animal, which was 
 conjectured to be an otter ; the place was sur- 
 rounded, and on opening an entrance among 
 the roots, a tench was found of most singular 
 form, having literally assumed the shape of the 
 hole in which of course he had been for many 
 years confined. His length from eye to fork 
 was thirty- three inches, his circumference 
 almost to the tail was twenty-seven inches, his 
 weight eleven pounds nine ounces and a 
 quarter ; the colour was also singular, his belly 
 
98 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 being that of a char, or vermilion. This ex- 
 traordinary fish, after having been inspected by 
 many gentlemen, was carefully put into a pond, 
 and, at the time the account was written, 
 twelve months afterwards, was alive and well." 
 Not only then did this fish live in his moist 
 prison, but grew to an enormous size. The 
 tench is too well known to require a particular 
 description. 
 
 In many of our large rivers or lakes, and in 
 some of our canals and slow rivers a fish called 
 the bream, or carp-bream, (Air amis Irama^) is 
 very abundant ; it inhabits the lakes of Cum- 
 berland and those of Ireland, and is common 
 in the southern and central parts of the Euro- 
 pean continent. 
 
 Walton says : " The French esteem this fish 
 highly, and to that end have this proverb, He 
 that hath breams in his pond, is able to bid his 
 friend welcome. And it is noted that the best 
 part of a bream is his belly and head." This 
 last observation may be taken as a tacit admis- 
 sion that the bream does not merit the praise 
 bestowed upon it ; in fact, its flesh is insipid and 
 full of little bones but French cookery may 
 probably render it palatable. 
 
 The bream is very prolific, and in large 
 lakes affords an abundant supply of food to 
 
THE ROACH AND DACE. 99 
 
 pikes, and other voracious fishes. The female 
 deposits her eggs in May, and, according to 
 Bloch, there are one hundred and thirty thou- 
 sand in the roe of a well-grown individual. In 
 some parts of Ireland, where breams are very 
 abundant and very large, sometimes weighing 
 ten or twelve pounds each, the fish are taken 
 in large quantities and dried, in which state 
 they are acceptable to the peasantry. The 
 bream has neither bony rays on any of its fins, 
 nor barbules about the mouth ; its body is deep 
 and compressed ; its general colour is yellowish 
 white, often with a tinge of brown. A distinct 
 and smaller species, of a silvery white, inhabits 
 some of our rivers, as the Trent, the Cam, as 
 well as lakes, etc. It is the white bream, or 
 bream-fiat, (Abramis llicca^) common on the 
 continent. It is in no request for the table. 
 
 Two fishes, respectively termed the roach, 
 (Leuciscus rutilus,) and the dace, (Leuciscus 
 vulgarisj) are common in the rivers and lakes 
 of the British islands and those of the adjacent 
 continent* They are pretty silvery-sided fish, 
 gregarious in their habits, and are fond of deep 
 quiet spots, or still nooks in the river, mill-dams, 
 and similar situations. These little fishes are 
 not in much estimation for the table, yet their 
 flesh is delicate, and in the best degree of per- 
 
100 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 feet ion in autumn. We need not describe these 
 fishes, but may be permitted to point out the 
 obvious differences between them. 
 
 The roach is a deeper fish than the dace, 
 with a longer dorsal fin, and a lateral line 
 sweeping more decidedly downwards from the 
 head. The dorsal and caudal fins are pale 
 brown, tinged with red, the pectoral fins are 
 orange red, the others bright red. In the dace, 
 the dorsal and caudal fins are pale brown, 
 and all the others white, with a tinge merely 
 of red. 
 
 In the Mersey, and some of its tributary 
 streams, a fish termed the graining (Leuciscus 
 LancastriensiSj Yarrell) is found. It was noticed 
 by Pennant, who observes, that it in some re- 
 spects resembles the dace, but yet is a distinct 
 and perhaps new species. For a clear history 
 of the fish, till lately in obscurity, we are 
 indebted to Mr. Yarrell. He informs us, that 
 " in its habits and food it resembles the trout, 
 frequenting both the rapids and still parts of 
 the rivers, but is not known to exist in ponds. 
 They sometimes, though not commonly, exceed 
 half a pound in weight, and are much better 
 eating than the dace." He gives the colouring 
 as follows : top of the head, back, and upper 
 portion of the sides, pale drab, tinged with 
 
THE CHUB, RUDD, AND BLEAK. 101 
 
 blueish red, and separated from the lighter 
 coloured parts below by a well- defined boun- 
 dary line. Cheeks and gill-covers silvery white, 
 with a tinge of yellow ; fins pale yellowish 
 white. Fin-rays, D 9. P 17. v 10. A 11. c 19. 
 
 In the Thames, and most of our larger 
 rivers, where deep and quiet nooks afford it a 
 congenial retreat, the chub (Leuciscus cephalus) 
 is a common fish. It is shy and recluse in its 
 habits, and loves the shelter of willows, and 
 steep banks, which throw a shade over its lurk- 
 ing-place, so as to screen it from observation. 
 The chub is too well known to need de- 
 scription. 
 
 Common in the Thames, and most of our 
 rivers, is the rudd, or red-eye, (Leuciscus ery- 
 thropthalmuSj) remarkable for the golden coppery 
 tint of its general surface, and the red colour of 
 the iris. 
 
 Another common species is the bleak, (Leu- 
 ciscus alburnuSj) a silvery little fish, roving in 
 shoals ; and formerly in great request, (as were 
 also the roach and dace,) for converting small 
 hollow glass beads into imitations of pearl. 
 This was effected by lining their inside with 
 the beautiful silvery pigment which gives lustre 
 to the scales of fish ; this was procured by 
 steeping the scales, first carefully cleaned of 
 
102 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 slime and dirt, in pure water, to the bottom of 
 which the pigment was in a short time preci- 
 pitated. 
 
 In some of the streams of Lancashire, a fish 
 called the azurine, or blue roach, (Leudscus 
 cceruleuS) Yarrell,) occurs, though perhaps not 
 abundantly. It was first described as a new 
 species by Mr. Yarrell, in the Linn. Trans., vol. 
 xvii. part 1, p. 8, having been previously 
 unknown either to British or continental natu- 
 ralists, though we believe that, with the grain- 
 ing, it inhabits some of the Swiss lakes. 
 
 It seldom, weighs, more than ten or twelve 
 ounces, rarely a pound. Its general colour is 
 glossy slate blue, passing into silvery white 
 beneath ; fins white. 
 
 In all our clear streams, brooks, and rivers, 
 the minnow or pink, (Leudscus phoxinusj) 
 abounds in shoals, roving about in quest of food, 
 now appearing in the shallows, now seeking the 
 deeper parts, and anon scattering asunder, as 
 some pike, trout, or perch, intent on prey, 
 strikes the phalanx with panic. We have often 
 watched their movements, and have frequently 
 seen them in compact array encircle various 
 objects, as a large worm or dead fish, on which 
 they have continued to feed until disturbed on 
 purpose ; we have seen them, too, when scat- 
 
THE LOACH. 103 
 
 tered, re-assemble by degrees, and again pro- 
 ceed with their feast. 
 
 The colours of this little fish are exquisitely 
 beautiful, and its movements are prompt and 
 active. Numbers in a short space of time may 
 be readily captured, and a good dish of fried 
 minnows, small as the fish is, is by no means to 
 be despised as a delicacy. 
 
 The minnow breeds in June, and the young 
 by the middle of autumn is about three 
 quarters of an inch in length. The adult fish 
 seldom measures more than three inches 01 
 three and a half. 
 
 Another little tenant of our gravelly streams 
 is the loach, (Cobitis barbatula,) remarkable for 
 its slimy surface, and six barbules on its upper 
 lip. This fish is in the habit of lurking under 
 stones, where it lies perfectly concealed from 
 observation. When disturbed it darts rapidly 
 along, keeping, however, at the bottom of the 
 water, and speedily availing itself of another 
 hiding-place. The flesh of the loach, small as the 
 fish is, (seldom exceeding four inches in length,) 
 is very delicate, and on the continent highly 
 prized. It was on this account that Frederick i., 
 king of Sweden, caused this species to be brought 
 from Germany, and naturalized in his own 
 country. 
 
104 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 In the Trent, and in some of the streams of 
 Wilts and Cambridgeshire, a very minute fish, 
 called the spined loach, or groundling, (Botea 
 tcenia,) is to be found. It is about two inches 
 and a half long, and, like the loach, secretes 
 itself under stones. It has a decided spine just 
 behind each nostril. 
 
 The family Esocidce contains several British 
 fishes, some belonging to the fresh water, others 
 to the sea. 
 
 Among the former is the ferocious pike, 
 (Esox luciuSj) the tyrant of the lake and 
 river. 
 
 The form of the pike indicates its great 
 power and activity in its native element. It 
 ploughs the water with extraordinary energy, 
 and darts upon its prey with the velocity of an 
 arrow ; there is a sudden flash, circle after 
 circle forms on the surface of the water, but all 
 is still again in an instant. 
 
 No fish is more wary and watchful than the 
 pike ; shrouded from observation in his solitary 
 retreat, he follows with his eye the motions of 
 the shoals of fish that wander heedlessly along, 
 he marks the water-rat swimming to its bur- 
 row, the ducklings paddling among the water- 
 weeds, the dab-chick and the moor-hen leisurely 
 swimming over the surface. He selects hi 
 
THE PIKE. 105 
 
 victim, and, like the tiger springing from the 
 jungle, he rushes forth, seldom indeed missing 
 his aim. 
 
 Of the daring and ferocity of this fish many 
 authenticated instances are on record. Walton 
 says: " Gesner relates, that a man going to a 
 pond (where it seems a pike had devoured all 
 the fish) to water his mule, had a pike bite his 
 mule by the lips, to which the pike hung so 
 fast that the mule drew him out of the water, 
 and by that accident the mule angled out the 
 pike. And the same Gesner observes, that a 
 maid in Poland had a pike bite her by the foot, 
 as she was washing clothes in a pond. And I 
 have heard of the like of a woman in Killing- 
 worth pond, not far from Coventry. But I 
 have been assured by my friend, Mr. Seagrave, 
 who keeps tame otters, that he hath known a 
 pike in extreme hunger fight with one of his 
 otters for a carp that the otter had caught, and 
 was then bringing out of the water." Dr. Plot 
 states, that at Trentham, Staffordshire, a pike 
 seized the head of a swan, as she was feeding 
 under water, and gorged so much of it that 
 both fish and swan perished ; the keepers, per- 
 ceiving the swan fixed with its head under 
 water for an unusual time, took a boat to go 
 to the bird's assistance, but it was too late. 
 
106 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell, on Mr. Jesse's authority, says : " The 
 present head -keeper of Richmond park was 
 once washing his hand over the side of a boat, in 
 the great pond in that park, when a pike made 
 a dart at it, and he had but just time to with- 
 draw it." Mr. Jesse adds, that " a gentleman 
 now residing in Weybridge, in Surrey, walking 
 one day by the side of the river Wey, near that 
 town, saw a large pike in a shallow creek. He 
 immediately pulled off his coat, tucked up his 
 shirt-sleeves, and went into the water to inter- 
 rupt the return of the fish into the river, and 
 to endeavour to throw it out on the bank by 
 getting his hands under it. During the attempt 
 the pike, finding he could not make his escape, 
 seized one of the arms of the gentleman, and 
 lacerated it so much that the marks of the 
 wound are still visible." The following anec- 
 dote is taken from one of the public papers, 
 August 25, 1846 : On Thursday, Mr. Collet, 
 in company with a friend from London, were 
 fishing at Shepperton, for barbel, when the bait 
 was taken by a roach, which, in its turn, was 
 instantly seized by a pike. The line was drawn 
 in, the pike continuing its hold upon the small 
 fish till near the water's edge, when it suddenly 
 leaped from its victim and threw itself on the 
 bank, when both pike and roach were captured. 
 
THE PIKE. 107 
 
 The pike weighed 91bs., and, on opening it, in 
 its stomach were found three small fish, a water- 
 rat, and a young moor-hen." 
 
 The voracity of the pike is connected with 
 its rapidity of growth, which necessitates an 
 abundant supply of nutriment, and involves at 
 the same time extreme celerity of digestion. 
 A young pike is recorded to reach to the length 
 of about eight inches during the first year, to 
 that of twelve or fourteen during the second 
 year, and of eighteen or twenty inches during 
 the third ; after this its increase for several suc- 
 cessive years, where stores of food are abundant, 
 is at the rate of three or four pounds per year. 
 Eight pike, of about five pounds each, have been 
 ascertained to devour eight hundred gudgeons 
 in three weeks. Some idea from this may be 
 formed of the havoc this fish must make in the 
 meres, lakes, or rivers, in which it is plentiful, 
 and of the necessity of encouraging the breeds 
 of inferior fishes, as the bream and others, for 
 its due maintenance. The pike not only lives 
 to an extreme age, but attains to extraordinary 
 dimensions. Pennant speaks of one ninety 
 years of age, and Gesner notices a pike taken 
 at Hailbrun, in Suabia, in 1497, with a brazen 
 ring attached to it, on which was inscribed in 
 Greek characters, "I am the fish which was 
 
108 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 first of all put into the lake by the hands of the 
 governor of the universe, Frederick the Second, 
 the 5th of October, 1230." This fish must 
 therefore have been at least 267 years old. It 
 is said to have weighed 350 pounds. 
 
 In the lakes of Scotland and Ireland, pike 
 weighing from fifty to seventy pounds have 
 occasionally been taken, and Horsea Mere, and 
 Heigham Sounds, two large sheets of water in 
 Norfolk, have been long celebrated for the size 
 and excellence of their pike, and also for their 
 abundance. 
 
 In the lakes of North America, a species of 
 pike, called the muskanungee, grows to an 
 enormous size, but we cannot obtain any de- 
 finite measurements. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the larger pike 
 are, the better is their flesh for the table ; 
 Walton rightly says : " Old or very great pikes 
 have in them more of state than goodness ; the 
 smaller or middling-sized pikes being, by the 
 most and choicest palates, observed to be the 
 best meat." 
 
 In warm and sunny weather, the pike mostly 
 swims near the surface, and may be often seen 
 luxuriating in the sunbeams, lulled into a sort 
 of slumber. It is not difficult at such times to 
 draw a wire noose, fastened to the end of a rod 
 
THE GARFISH. 109 
 
 or long staff, over its head or body, and land it 
 by a sudden jerk. 
 
 Pike are taken by spinning or by trolling : 
 and in large sheets of water, in Norfolk, by 
 liggers or trimmers, that is, a baited hook 
 attached to a line, secured to and wound round 
 a float of rushes, a due portion of the line only 
 being free, and sufficiently secured from altera- 
 tion by being caught between the rushes, or in 
 a notch of a wooden float, sometimes used in- 
 stead of the rush float. This is put into the 
 water, and when the bait is seized by the fish, 
 the jerk disengages the line from its slight 
 security, and the whole is unwound to the float, 
 which latter indicates the occurrence. 
 
 The jaws and palate of the pike are most 
 formidably armed with sharp teeth of various 
 sizes, the form of the body is elongated, and 
 the dorsal fin is placed far back. 
 
 The pike has various names in our language, 
 as pickerel, luce or lucie, and, in Scotland, 
 gedd. Pike, of small size, are often called jack. 
 
 Among the sea-fish of this family is the 
 well-known garfish, (Belone vulgar is,) remark- 
 able for its elongated slender body, and long 
 projecting jaws, tapering to an attenuated 
 point, and armed with small teeth. The bones 
 of this fish are green. 
 
110 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 In April or May, the garfish leaves the deep 
 sea, and visits various portions of our coast, 
 and of that of continental Europe, for the pur- 
 pose of breeding. This fish is often called the 
 mackerel guide, from the circumstance of its 
 making its appearance a little before the shoals 
 of mackerel ; it is taken in considerable num- 
 bers, and, during its short stay, may be seen 
 abundantly in the London markets ; its flesh, 
 however, is but indifferent. 
 
 The garfish is very active and vigorous, and 
 cuts through the water, generally near the sur- 
 face, with great rapidity. 
 
 Occasionally an allied species, the skipper, 
 or saury pike, (Sconiberesox sauruSj) visits our 
 shores in shoals, generally making their ap- 
 pearance in June. It is common in the 
 Mediterranean, and is there a favourite prey of 
 the tunny, which scatters the shoal as it darts 
 amidst them, throwing them into consternation. 
 In order to escape their foe, they leap one over 
 the other, to a great distance out of the water, 
 the hindmost striving to get first in the race, 
 and the foremost rushing for yards together on 
 the surface of the water, which they scarcely 
 seem to touch. Often does the mariner gaze 
 on such a scene. Thousands of skippers pass 
 the vessel, with tunnies and bonitoes in full. 
 
THE SALMON. Ill 
 
 chase, their scales glistening in the sun ; anon 
 the pursued and their pursuers disappear in the 
 deep anon they return to the surface, all in 
 confusion, but still rushing along, leaping and 
 diving, till out of the spectator's sight. 
 
 In form, the skipper much resembles the 
 garfish, but the posterior half of its elongated 
 body is stouter and deeper in proportion. Its 
 gill-covers are silvery white, as are the sides 
 and under parts, but the back and top of the 
 head are of a dark blue. 
 
 We may now pass onward to another family, 
 that of the Salmonidce, or salmon tribe, of which 
 the salmon (Salmo solar) is a well-known 
 example. 
 
 We have already described this queen of 
 fishes as a periodical visitor to our rivers, in 
 which it breeds, depositing its eggs in the 
 gravel in the winter, having pushed up from 
 the estuary during the autumn, to which they 
 again descend in the spring, and pass the latter 
 part of the summer in the sea. It would ap- 
 pear, however, that the breeding season of this 
 fish, and consequently the precise time of its 
 visit to the upper portions of the river, are in- 
 fluenced by various causes, which hasten or 
 retard the development of the roe. In Sweden, 
 according to Artedi, the salmon do not deposit 
 
112 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 their eggs till the middle of summer. The 
 warmth of the water may be an influencing 
 cause. " There are two rivers," says sir 
 William Jardine, "in Sutherlandshire, which 
 show this late and early running (of the 
 salmon) under peculiar circumstances. One, 
 the Oikel, borders the county, and springs 
 from a small alpine lake, perhaps about hall 
 a mile in breadth ; the other, the Shin, is a 
 tributary to the Oikel, joins it about five miles 
 from the mouth, but takes its rise from Loch 
 Shin, a large and deep extent of water, and 
 connected to a chain of other deep locks. 
 Early in the spring, all the salmon entering the 
 common mouth diverge at the junction, turn 
 up the Shin, and return as it were to their 
 own and warmer stream, while a very few 
 keep the main course of the Oikel until, a much 
 later period." * 
 
 The vigour displayed by the salmon in 
 shooting up the most impetuous rapids is very 
 wonderful, nor do waterfalls or cascades daunt 
 them. Curving the body till the tail and head 
 meet, they give a lash with all their force to 
 the water, and spring up with amazing address. 
 Often they miss their leap, and fall back into 
 the river, but it is only to wait for fresh 
 * Yarrell. 
 
THE SALMON. 113 
 
 strength, and more energetically to renew their 
 attempt ; thus they surmount a fall of eight or 
 ten feet, but not always without accidents ; 
 sometimes they throw themselves out of the 
 stream upon the rocks and stories, and so 
 perish ; and sometimes they kill themselves, 
 by the repetition of their fruitless efforts. 
 
 Having at length arrived at their proper 
 breeding places, shallow gravelly pools, in the 
 pure stream, the salmon prepare for the deposi- 
 tion of the eggs. At this time, the cheeks of the 
 male become variegated with stripes of orange 
 colour, and an orange tinge pervades the body ; 
 the lower jaw becomes elongated at its tip, by 
 the development of a cartilaginous projection, 
 which, when the month is closed, occupies a deep 
 notch at the end of the snout. The female at 
 the same time assumes a dark colour, and both 
 are respectively called red and black fish. Each 
 pair now begins to make a furrow in the gravel, 
 working with their snout against the stream ; 
 when this is finished, the female deposits a 
 number of her eggs in it, and covers them up. 
 The pair then proceed to work out other 
 furrows, and in about ten or twelve days the 
 whole of the eggs are deposited. Supposing 
 the eggs to be deposited early in November, 
 they are hatched in March, or early in 
 
114 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 April, and the young fry exhibit a rapid 
 growth. 
 
 After spawning, the salmon begin their 
 descent to the estuary, and so enter the sea, to 
 commence their re-ascent in autumn. The 
 salmon fishery, as by enactments ordained, is 
 open from the 1st of February to the 14th of 
 September, in the Scottish rivers. Various 
 modes are employed in capturing this fish ; 
 many are taken by the skilful fly-fisher, whose 
 address is tested to the uttermost by such an 
 antagonist as even a moderately sized salmon. 
 Mr. Stoddart relates that on one occasion in 
 the Tweed, a favourite river for the salmon 
 fisher, sir Humphrey Davy struck an immense 
 fish, weighing above forty-two pounds, imme- 
 diately above Yairbridge, and landed him after 
 a severe struggle. Mr. Lascelles records the 
 capture of a fish, weighing fifty-four pounds 
 and a half, by the angling-rod, observing, that 
 it was the largest salmon taken with a fly he 
 ever knew in Scotland. It is not, however, we 
 need scarcely say, by the angling-rod of the 
 fly-fisher that the markets are supplied during 
 the spring and summer. Nets of different 
 kinds are the most effective, and of these we 
 may first notice the stake-net. In the spring, as 
 we have said, the salmon remains in the broad 
 
THE SALMON. 
 
 115 
 
 estuary of rivers, ascending with the flood - 
 tide, and returning with the ebb. For many a 
 mile on each side, extending between high and 
 low water-mark, are fixed nets of a peculiar 
 construction, supported on firm stakes, and 
 deepening, to meet the increasing depth of the 
 water, from the edge of the shore to the low- 
 water line. These stake-nets are generally 
 placed in opposition to the tide, so as to capture 
 the fish brought up the estuary. Their form 
 is better delineated than described. We must 
 
 imagine the tide coming in, and the upper part 
 of the stake-net only visible above the water. 
 Suppose from the bank, a, two perpendicular 
 converging walls of net, b and c, extending to 
 low-water mark, form a sort of embouchure 
 
116 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 opposite the tide coming in, as indicated by the 
 arrows ; a narrow passage, or open gateway, d, 
 leads into netted chambers, into which the fish, 
 conducted by the position of the nets consti- 
 tuting the embouchure, are gradually forced, 
 and from which they cannot escape. These 
 nets catch the fish ascending with the tide, but 
 other stake-nets in the opposite direction, 
 against the ebb of the tide, intercept many fish 
 descending with it. In the centre of the stream, 
 men in boats are engaged with sweep-nets, by 
 which they surround several fish at a time. Dur- 
 ing the summer, when the fish rove along the 
 sea-shore, seeking the mouths of the rivers pre- 
 viously to commencing their autumnal ascents, 
 in order to the capture a long net is projected 
 from the shore into the sea, making a consider- 
 able bend or half-moon ; from its remote or 
 seaward extremity long cords extend obliquely 
 to another part of the shore, and by these cords 
 the net is drawn in, from time to time, inclos- 
 ing in a more and more circular sweep the fish 
 within its flexure. This mode can only be 
 used in particular localities, where the shore is 
 favourable. In some rivers, dams are partially 
 thrown across the stream, with openings lead- 
 ing into inclosed chambers or crevices ; into 
 these crevices the ascending fish enter, but are 
 
THE SALMON. 117 
 
 prevented by a grating of peculiar contrivance 
 from making their escape. On the flats in 
 Solway Frith, a large funnel-shaped net, with a 
 wide mouth, is used. Different localities and 
 accidental varieties in the characters of the 
 shore, or any given part of a salmon river, 
 require different methods, and hence the various 
 kinds of traps, decoys, and nets that are in 
 vogue, each in its appropriate place. In the 
 Severn, for example, the fishermen proceed in 
 coracles (or wicker boats, covered with canvass, 
 tarred and painted,) to the fishery, using several 
 kinds of drag-nets. 
 
 In the salmon rivers of Scotland, a small fish, 
 having transverse dark marks across the back to 
 the lateral line, is known under the name of the 
 parr. By many observers it has been, and still 
 is asserted, that the parr is only the young or 
 smolt of the salmon at a certain stage of growth ; 
 some, on the other hand, regard it as a variety 
 of the young of the common trout. It is the 
 Salmo salmulus of Willoughby, and we believe, 
 with Mr. Yarrell and sir W. Jardine, that it is 
 a distinct species from either, one of the smallest 
 of the family ; and it is remarkable, that in 
 those unprotected rivers, from which poaching 
 has driven the salmon, it abounds in profusion, 
 as well as in some streams which the salmon 
 
118 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES* 
 
 never visit ; while in others, frequented both 
 by the salmon and the sea-trout, it is not to be 
 found. Nor is it the young of the common 
 trout, from which it differs in various anato- 
 mical peculiarities. The young of the salmon, 
 the bull-trout, the common trout and others, 
 have dark transverse marks, which become lost 
 sooner or later, depending on the ultimate size 
 of the species. " Thus," says Mr. Yarrell, " they 
 are soonest lost on the salmon, and on the bull- 
 trout, and are borne the longest on the common 
 trout and parr ; indeed, I have never seen the 
 parr at any age or size without some trace of 
 the remains of these markings. It is this simi- 
 larity in marking and appearance of the fry 
 which has caused the difficulty in distinguish- 
 ing between the various species when so young, 
 and experimenters, believing they had marked 
 young parr only, have been surprised to find 
 some of their marked fish return as grilse, 
 young bull-trout, or whitling, salmon-trout, 
 river-trout, and true parr." Mr. Yarrell alludes 
 to the young of other animals being marked, 
 and ultimately losing markings, which are per- 
 manent in other species of the family ; thus, the 
 young lion and the puma are marked like the 
 young of the tiger, and the young of all deer 
 are spotted, though the greater number of the 
 
THE SALMON TROUT. 119 
 
 species when adult are plain. Formerly, when 
 the water of the Thames was purer than at 
 present, the parr or samlet was common between 
 Staines and Chertsey, and was known by the 
 name of the skegger.* It is now rarely to be 
 found, and a Thames salmon is out of the 
 question. 
 
 Perfectly distinct from the salmon, and next 
 in estimation, is the salmon-trout, (Salmo 
 trutta.) It is migratory, like the salmon, 
 but never attains to so large a size, averaging 
 only a few pounds' weight, though one of 
 seventeen pounds was once seen by Mr. Yarrell. 
 It is now a permanent resident in a fresh water 
 lake of Lismore, one of the Hebrides. It 
 occurs in the Sandwich river, and occasionally 
 in the Thames and Medway ; it is the Forbridge, 
 or Fordwich trout, thus referred to by Walton : 
 " There is also in Kent, near to Canterbury, a 
 trout there called a Fordidge trout, a trout 
 that bears the name of the town where it is 
 usually caught, that is accounted the rarest 
 offish." 
 
 Vast quantities of salmon trout are sent to 
 the London market from Scotland, and many 
 persons regard them as young salmon. 
 
 * Walton notices this little fish as common in the Thames 
 about Windsor. 
 
120 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 In some of the rivers of Scotland and Eng- 
 land the bull-trout, or whitling, (Salmo eriox,) 
 is very common ; it is as large or nearly so as 
 the salmon, but its flesh, which when in season 
 is of a pale orange colour, is not held in much 
 estimation. Very few are ever sent to the 
 London market. The local names of Norway 
 trout, round-tail, sea trout, Wark worth trout, 
 and coquet trout, are referrible to this fish. 
 
 The clear streams, the swift gravelly rivers, 
 and the pure fresh water lakes of the British 
 islands, all abound more or less with that deli- 
 cate fish, the common trout, (Salmo fario,) re- 
 specting which anglers, from Izaak Walton 
 downwards, have written so much, each giving 
 preference to the fish of different rivers accord- 
 ing to his fancy. Walton praises the " swift, 
 shallow, clear, pleasant brooks " of Hampshire, 
 with their " store of trouts." Cotton exalts the 
 Dove, the Wye, the Derwent, and the Lathkin 
 of Derbyshire. But perhaps finer trout are 
 nowhere to be found than those in the Thames, 
 about the weirs of Hampton Court and Chertsey, 
 about Pangbourne, above Reading, and iu the 
 deep pools above Oxford. We have ourselves 
 seen Thames trout between eleven and twelve 
 pounds' weight ; but some of fourteen and fifteen 
 pounds' weight are occasionally taken, not, 
 
THE TROUT. 121 
 
 however, without such a struggle as to bring 
 all the skill of the angler into full play. 
 
 In 1832, a trout, thirty-one inches in length, 
 twenty-one inches in girth, and seventeen 
 pounds' weight, was taken near Great Driffield, 
 (Yorkshire,) and one in the same year, January 
 llth, in a small branch of the Avon, at Salis- 
 bury, weighing twenty -five pounds. The 
 trout feeds on flies, and the larvaa of insects, on 
 small fishes, etc., and is extremely wary, active, 
 and vigorous, leaping out of the water at its 
 insect prey, and pursuing its finny victims with 
 wonderful velocity. It bites eagerly at the 
 May-fly, which proves a most destructive bait ; 
 and various artificial flies, suited to different 
 streams or rivers, are also used by the angler ; 
 the larger trout are generally taken by spinning 
 or trolling with a small bleak or gudgeon. The 
 trout is in perfection in May, June, and July, 
 (October being the breeding season,) and its 
 colours are very beautiful during those months, 
 the numerous reddish brown spots and bright 
 red spots, on its back and the upper part of the 
 sides, being clear and distinct ; the lower parts 
 of the sides being golden yellow, and the under 
 parts silvery white. There is, however, great 
 variety in the colour of the trouts of different 
 rivers, some being darker, some lighter in their 
 
122 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 tints, and in the black rivers running over beds 
 of shale, in the moorlands, as the upper part of 
 the Wye, near Buxton, in Derbyshire, we have 
 seen the small trout of an almost inky hue ; 
 while in the same river, along the Bakewell 
 road, on its way to join the Derwent, where the 
 water is beautifully clear, the trout are of a pale 
 golden colour and beautifully spotted. They 
 are, however, seldom of very large size. 
 
 The trout would appear to be a long-lived 
 fish ; at Dumbarton Castle a trout died, in 
 1809, which had been kept, as asserted, in the 
 well for twenty-eight years ; add the Westmore- 
 land Advertiser, in August, 1826, contained, 
 as Mr. Yarrell states, a paragraph respecting 
 a trout which had lived for fifty-three years 
 in a well in the orchard of Mr. W. Mossop, of 
 Board-hall, near Broughton-in-Furness. The 
 flesh of the trout is very delicious, and when in 
 full season of a pure salmon-pink colour. 
 
 In Lough Neagh, a variety called the gillaroo 
 trout exists ; we have seen specimens of it ; 
 it differs in having the lining cuticle of the 
 stomach thickened, or rather indurated, and in 
 the number of fin-rays, thus : 
 
 Gillaroo trout, D 12. p 14. v 9. A 11. c 19. 
 
 Common trout, D 14. p 14, and as above. 
 
 Trout from various lakes, with the upper 
 
THE CHARR. 123 
 
 jaw unnaturally abbreviated, are not uncom- 
 mon ; they exist in some lakes in, Wales, and 
 Loch-dow, Inverness-shire. They are merely 
 instances of hereditary malformation. 
 
 In some of the lakes of Scotland, Cum- 
 berland, and Ireland, as Loch-awe, UUswater, 
 Lough Neagh, etc., a large species of trout, 
 called the great grey trout, pr the great lake 
 trout, has been long known to exist. This 
 species is extremely savage and voracious, feed- 
 ing principally upon other fishes, among which 
 the small common trout must be enumerated. 
 We have had an opportunity of seeing speci- 
 mens nearly a yard in length. Young fish of 
 this species will rise at an angler's %, but the 
 larger ones can only be taken by trolling in a 
 boat, the bait a small trout, and the tackle ex- 
 tremely strong. The flesh is indifferent, and of 
 an orange yellow. 
 
 The lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland, 
 and Lancashire, some of the Scotch and Irish 
 lakes, and the lake of Geneva, afford a delicately 
 flavoured fish, known as the char, charr, or 
 alpine charr, (Salmo umbla;) the potted flesh 
 of which, though often mixed with that of 
 trout, is sent to London. 
 
 The charr averages from nine to fourteen 
 inches in length ; it is very shy, and does not 
 
124 BEITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 rise well at the fly, but is, nevertheless, some- 
 times taken by the trout-fisher ; it will bite at 
 the minnow more readily, and is often taken 
 in deep water by drawing the bait sunk by 
 means of a lead, two or three feet above the 
 minnow, after a boat. The lake is to the charr 
 what the sea is to the salmon ; on the approach 
 of the breeding season, they ascend the rivers 
 or feeders of the lakes, selecting those in pre- 
 ference which have a hard, stony, or rocky bed. 
 Hence the charr of Windermere, contrary to 
 the trout, choose the Brathy in preference to 
 the sandy-bedded Eothay ; and in November 
 and December the shoals make their ascent. 
 The flesh of the charr when in season (namely, 
 June and July) is beautifully flaky, and of a 
 fine orange tint. From unknown causes, charr, 
 even at the same season of the year, differ con- 
 siderably in colour, hence the terms of gilt 
 charr, red charr, silver charr, and case charr, 
 applied in reference to this diversity. Dorsal 
 fin, thirteen rays. 
 
 Distinct from the northern charr, is a species 
 found in some of the lakes of Wales, and more 
 particularly in the deep Llyn Cawellyn, on the 
 side of Snowdon. It is the Welsh charr of Mr. 
 Yarrell, and the torgoch or red-belly of the 
 Welsh, (Salmo salvelinus, Donovan.) 
 
THE GRAYLING. 125 
 
 This fish is comparatively deeper and stouter 
 than the northern charr, with considerably 
 larger fins, a large eye, and much wider gape. 
 The flesh of this species is excellent, but is 
 little known beyond the territory adjacent to 
 the waters, which the fish has long tenanted. 
 It is abundant in the lake Cos-y-gedawl, in 
 Merionethshire. 
 
 In many of the clear rock or gravel-bedded 
 streams of our island, a beautiful fish, called 
 the grayling, or umber, (Thymallusvulgaris,)is 
 very abundant ; it is found in the Trent and 
 Dove, and in the Wye, at Bakewell ; the 
 streams of Hampshire and Wiltshire produce it ; 
 several rivers in Wales, Yorkshire, Lancashire, 
 and Cumberland, are also noted for it. This 
 elegant fish is no less beautiful than excellent for 
 the table, and it comes into season in October 
 and November, when trout is out of condition, 
 its breeding time being April or May. 
 
 The grayling feeds on insects, small mol- 
 lusks, etc., and rises like the trout, at the 
 angler's bait, but less dashingly. It has 
 always appeared to us a less vigorous and 
 active fish than the trout, and by no means 
 so capable of stemming the force of a rapid 
 current, nor have we ever observed it leap 
 out of the water, as we have so often seen 
 
126 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the trout, on a calm morning in May, while 
 the May-flies, "thick as autumnal leaves in 
 Valornbrosa," were dancing over the stream. 
 
 On the continent, if Donovan and Bloch are 
 correct, (but certainly not in England,) the 
 grayling passes the winter in the seas or the 
 estuary, ascending the river in the spring, and 
 remaining there till autumn. We say " not in 
 England," because we have known the grayling 
 in the "Wye and Derwent, not only through the 
 summer but the winter also, the fishing season 
 for it being during the winter months ; and 
 though not a professed " brother of the angle," 
 we have ourselves taken it at that time of the 
 year. We believe, however, that the writers 
 referred to are in some degree correct, for sir H. 
 Davy ascertained that the grayling of England 
 will bear brackish water without inconvenience. 
 
 When freshly taken from the water, this fish 
 has a peculiar aromatic and agreeable odour, 
 which should not be allowed to fade before it is 
 dressed for the table. Walton thus writes 
 respecting this fish : " Gesner says, that in his 
 country, which is Switzerland, he is accounted 
 the choicest of all fish," etc. " Some think he 
 feeds on water-thyme, and smells of it at his 
 first taking out of the water;" from this thyme- 
 like odour originates the generic term, thymallus. 
 
THE GRAYLING. 127 
 
 We have never seen grayling more than from 
 nine to fourteen or fifteen inches in length, 
 but examples are on record of fish weighing 
 from four to five pounds ; such specimens are, 
 however, very rare. 
 
 The grayling is remarkable for the height of 
 the first dorsal -fin, which is crossed with square 
 dusky spots ; the head and back are dusky 
 brown, the sides of the body of a light 
 yellowish brown, with golden, green, and 
 blue reflexions, and about fifteen dusky 
 longitudinal lines, with scattered black spots ; 
 the head is small, and the scales rather large. 
 
 In some of the lakes of Ireland, a fish of this 
 family, termed the pollan, exists abundantly, 
 and in the lakes of Wales and Cumberland a * 
 fish called the gwyriad, or schelly, is found. A 
 fish known as the vendace tenants the lakes of 
 Dumfriesshire. 
 
 We must not here omit the smelt, termed in 
 some counties the sparling, (Osmerus eperla- 
 nus,) so noted for its cucumber odour, and so 
 well-known in the markets of London. 
 
 This delicate little fish is not found along the 
 line of our southern shores from Dover to 
 Land's End, but is common on several parts both 
 of our west and eastern shores, migrating in 
 August up the rivers, where it remains till 
 
128 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 May, its breeding time being in March. 
 Formerly the smelt advanced up the Thames 
 as far as Hammersmith, but of late years 
 various causes have combined to deter the 
 advance of the shoals which enter the Nore 
 and the Medway, where the fishing is carried 
 on from the 28th of August to Good Friday. 
 Large quantities of smelts are taken on the 
 Lincolnshire coast ; in the Tees and Humber, 
 in the Frith of Forth, in the Sol way Frith, and 
 also in the Dee and Mersey. 
 
 The smelt, as we have said, breeds 'in the 
 fresh water, and resides there throughout the 
 greater portion of the year ; and as experi- 
 ments have proved, it will not only live but 
 thrive in fresh water pounds, or sheets of 
 water, into which it has been introduced, and 
 which have no communication with the sea, 
 so that it may be easily converted into a lake 
 fish, without any deterioration of quality. Con- 
 sidering the demand in the markets for this 
 fish, it is somewhat surprising that so little 
 attention has been paid to this circumstance. 
 
 The ordinary length of the smelt does not 
 exceed six or seven inches ; we have seen some 
 measuring nine, and even ten ; we believe that, 
 occasionally, still larger specimens occur. The 
 smelt is too well-known to need description, and 
 
THE ARGENTINE AND HERRING. 129 
 
 we have already pointed out its distinguishing 
 differences from the atherine, or sand-srnelt, of 
 our southern coast. 
 
 A little silvery fish, called the argentine, 
 (Scopelus Humboldtiij) is sometimes, but very 
 rarely, found on various parts of our coast. 
 Cuvier says it is taken in the Mediterranean, 
 mingled with anchovies. 
 
 Here we close our sketch of the salmon 
 family, easily distinguished by the adipose or 
 fatty texture of the second dorsal fin, which is 
 destitute of rays. 
 
 The next family to which we shall attend is that 
 of the herrings, pilchards, etc., termed Clupeidce. 
 Of these, the herring may be first noticed. 
 Notwithstanding Pennant's account of the mi- 
 gration of these fishes in vast shoals from the - 
 high northern latitudes, dividing and subdivid- 
 ing, as islands and capes of the main land sever 
 their ranks a statement copied into most 
 of the popular accounts of the day, without a 
 single inquiry it is now ascertained that such 
 a procedure is not the fact. In short, Pennant's 
 details are erroneous. The herring is not a 
 fish of the high northern latitudes ; voyagers 
 do not find it in the arctic waters at least it 
 is rare. Crantz, in his History of Greenland, 
 says : " The proper herring does not come into 
 E 
 
130 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 this latitude;" but he adds, "some few are 
 taken in the south, probably wanderers." On" 
 the other hand, he notices a distinct but far 
 smaller species as common. His words are : 
 " The Greenlanders have their most common 
 food from their augmarset, or small herring, 
 a kind of lodden, called by the Newfoundland 
 men capelin,* near half a foot long ; their 
 back is dark green, and their belly silver 
 white. Like herrings, they swim into the bays 
 in such quantities, to lodge their spawn on the 
 rocks, that the sea looks black, and is ruffled or 
 curled. They make their first appearance in 
 March or April, and the common gull is their 
 betrayer. They spawn in May and June, and 
 this is the Greenlanders' harvest, when they 
 lade out whole boats' full in a few hours, with 
 a hoop-sieve, knit with sinews. They dry 
 them on the open rocks in the air, and then 
 pack them up, and lay them by for winter, as 
 their daily bread." The fact is, that the 
 herring is a deep water fish, advancing towards 
 our shores for the purpose of breeding, and 
 thence retiring to the deep again. 
 
 The herring spawns in October, or the early 
 
 * Dried capelins are sold in the London markets ; they 
 have a peculiar flavour, something like that of burned leather, 
 that is, letting the sense of smell stand for that of taste. 
 Some persons like them. 
 
THE HERRING. 131 
 
 part of November ; and about three months 
 previously to this they assemble in vast shoals, 
 and gradually approach our coast, sometimes 
 frequenting for years certain localities, which, 
 from some cause not well understood, they do 
 not again visit, or only in trifling numbers. 
 Hence it happens, that the various herring 
 stations around our coast experience great 
 fluctuations, not only as to quantity, but also as 
 to the time of the arrival of the shoals.* 
 
 * The subjoined notice appeared in one of the public papers 
 on June 18th, 1846 : 
 
 " HERRING FISHING. It gives us great pleasure to state, 
 that the herring fishing in Lochfine has been very successful 
 this week, and the fish of the best quality. The market, 'on 
 Thursday, was more than abundantly supplied from Tarbet, 
 Lochgilphead, and Inverary, the latter station furnishing by 
 far the best fish. The abundant take allowed a great many 
 boxes, about sixty in number, imported here by Mr. W. 
 Gallocher, to be sent to Glasgow, Paisley, Dumbarton, and 
 Liverpool. The herrings were selling here at five for sixpence 
 on Thursday. The process of curing was also vigorously 
 carried on by him at the market, so that our denizens will 
 have it in their po'wer to partake of new cured herrings. On 
 Thursday afternoon, the Campbelton steamer passed with up- 
 wards of 100 barrels of cured herrings for the Glasgow market. 
 This is a good supply, although the fish are small in size, and 
 not equal in quality to the Lochfine herrings." Greenock 
 Advertiser. 
 
 We add the following, dated February 12th, 1846 : 
 
 "TAKE OF HERRINGS. We are happy to state, that the 
 greatest take of herrings within the memory of the oldest 
 inhabitant of this island has occurred in our bay (Dug'ort) 
 during the last three weeks. We may safely state, that up- 
 wards of 300,000 herrings were caught, and sold at fair prices, 
 averaging from 1*. 3d. to 3*. per hundred ; the fish were of 
 more than ordinary size." AcMll Herald 
 
132 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 On the appearance of the herrings off our 
 coastj the fishery commences, and the nets of an 
 active, busy class of men are in full requisition. 
 It is, however, only at night that the great 
 work goes on. The nets used are termed 
 drift-nets, suspended at different depths in the 
 water, according to the distance below the sur- 
 face of the water at which the shoals are pur- 
 suing their course. During this season count- 
 less thousands are taken by man. Porpoises 
 and large fishes prey unceasingly upon them, 
 and sea-birds join in the feast ; among these 
 latter, gannets and cormorants are conspicuous. 
 Buchanan calculates, that the gannets of St. 
 Kilda alone (to say nothing of those of the Bass 
 Rock and other places) destroy annually one 
 hundred and five millions of herrings ; yet, 
 neither the destructive operations of man, nor 
 of sea-birds, nor of large fishes, all combined, 
 perceptibly diminish their numbers. How 
 wise are the provisions of the Divine Creator, 
 who careth for the wants of all his crea- 
 tures ! 
 
 Young herrings in shoals are abundant 
 around our coast during the whole of the 
 summer, tenanting the shallows, and roving 
 about from place to place as instinct prompts 
 them. They continue during the autumn and 
 
THE PILCHARD. 133 
 
 winter in the estuary of the Thames, and the 
 sprat-fishers often take considerable numbers. 
 In some parts of the coast these young fishes 
 are termed herring-sile, and yawlings. 
 
 Besides the common herring, a distinct species 
 visits our coast in autumn. It is termed 
 Leach's herring, (Clupea Leachii, Yarrell,) and 
 was first discriminated by Mr. Yarrell, who 
 gave a detailed account of it in the Zoological 
 Journal, vol. v. This species is caught often 
 in considerable numbers in the estuary of the 
 Thames during the winter ; it is smaller than 
 the common herring, not exceeding seven inches 
 and a half in length, and superior in flavour ; 
 in proportion to its length, it is much deeper 
 than the common herring, and differs, more- 
 over, in the number of the fin-rays and of the 
 vertebras. It is taken in Cardigan bay, and 
 various bays and lochs in Scotland. The 
 breeding season of this species commences in 
 the middle of February. 
 
 On our southern coast, and especially that of 
 Devonshire and Cornwall, the pilchard (Clupea 
 pilchardus) is -taken at certain seasons of the 
 year in great abundance. This fish does not 
 travel so far northwards as the herring, but 
 contents itself within temperate latitudes, never 
 being found in the northern ocean. It is com- 
 
134 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 mon on the coasts of France and Spain, but 
 seldom appears there in such countless shoals 
 as it does along those of Cornwall and Devon- 
 shire, where, as we have said, an extensive 
 fishery is carried on. This fish seldom departs 
 far from the coast ; but in July it assembles 
 in astonishing multitudes, when the autumn 
 fishery commences, the sean and the drift-net 
 being chiefly used. 
 
 Pilchards, often in large shoals, visit different 
 parts of the coast of Ireland, and there is a 
 regularly conducted fishery in Bantry Bay. 
 
 The following extract will serve to show the 
 enormous quantity of these fishes which are 
 sometimes taken : " A fisherman, now alive, 
 was present once at the taking of two thousand 
 two hundred hogsheads of pilchards in one 
 sean. An instance has been known where ten 
 thousand hogsheads have been taken on shore 
 in one port in a single day ; thus providing the 
 enormous multitude of twenty-five millions of 
 living creatures, drawn at once from the ocean 
 for human sustenance." The number of fish 
 in each hogshead is two thousand five hundred. 
 " The outfit of a sean amounts to about 800 ; 
 a string of drift-nets will cost about 6 ; the 
 net and the boat from 100 to 150. In 
 1827, the cost of seans and boats used in this 
 
THE SPRAT. 135 
 
 fishery, principally in Cornwall, was 209,840, 
 and of drift-boats and nets, 61,400. The 
 nets are supposed to last about six years, and 
 ought of course to produce their own value 
 within that time, together with an adequate 
 profit ; but it is the complaint of the fishermen 
 that this is not the case. The profit of the men 
 depends on the share of the fish, which is 
 divided into eight parts, of which the boat has 
 one-eighth part, the nets three, and the men 
 four. A boy that accompanies them is re- 
 warded with the fish that may fall into the sea 
 as the nets are drawn, to secure which he is 
 furnished with a bag-net at the end of a rod, 
 termed a keep-net." 
 
 The pilchard much resembles the herring, 
 but is shorter and thicker. It is principally to 
 different ports along the northern shore of the 
 Mediterranean that the cured pilchards are 
 exported. 
 
 Along various parts of our coast, that well- 
 known fish, the sprat, (Clupea sprattus^) is taken 
 during the winter, the fishing season commenc- 
 ing in November. This fish abounds along the 
 shores of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent ; 
 it is comparatively rare along the Cornish 
 coast, but it is very abundant along the southern 
 shores of Devon. Its movements, however, are 
 
136 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 very capricious. Tons' weight of sprats are 
 often taken, and in some districts are used for 
 manuring the land, and immense quantities are 
 sent fresh to the London market, as they are in 
 request with all classes. At Lowestoft and 
 Yarmouth, thousands are cured and dried in 
 the same manner as herrings. They are sold 
 by the dozen, or in bundles of one thousand 
 each, tied up with twisted straw, and sometimes 
 in small barrels. 
 
 Sprats are often caught by means of drift- 
 nets, made of fine twine, with small meshes, 
 but more frequently by means of stow-boat 
 nets, like large bag-nets, the mouth of which, 
 twenty-two feet wide and thirty-six feet high, 
 is kept square by means of beams and a heavy 
 anchor, at a proper distance under the boat. 
 The net is so moored that the tide carries 
 everything into it. On raising the net, the 
 beams which keep the mouth open are brought 
 together in such a manner as to close it, thus 
 securing the shoal within. 
 
 Formerly, many naturalists were disposed to 
 regard the sprat as the young of the herring or 
 the pilchard, but their opinion is now proved to 
 be erroneous. Besides many variations in the 
 position of the fins, one characteristic of the 
 sprat consists in the serration of the abdominal 
 
THE SPRAT. 137 
 
 line, or edge, which is so distinct as to prove 
 an index to the fisherman in the darkest night. 
 Dr. Parnell informs us, that sprats are found in 
 the Frith of Forth throughout the whole of the 
 year ; and that, like many small animals, they 
 appear to be very susceptible of cold. " During 
 the warm summer months, they are seen sport- 
 ing about in large shoals, in every part of the 
 Frith, occupying a considerable extent of 
 water, and causing a ripple on the surface with 
 their fins, while they become the principal food 
 of many marine birds, which assail them in the 
 water, or prey on them from above. As the 
 cold weather advances, these little fish are no 
 longer seen in the lower part of the estuary, but 
 are found to ascend the Frith to a considerable 
 distance, and to select that part of the river 
 where the fresh and salt waters mingle toge- 
 ther ; for it is a well-known law in chemistry, 
 that when two fluids of different densities come 
 in contact, the temperature of the mixture is 
 elevated for a time in proportion to the differ- 
 ence in density of the two fluids. Owing to 
 mutual penetration and condensation, such a 
 mixture is constantly taking place in rivers 
 that run into the sea, and the temperature of 
 the mixed water is accordingly elevated. In the 
 year 1830, the sprat was remarkably abundant 
 E 2 
 
138 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 all over the British coast, but more particularly 
 on the coasts of Kent and Essex, where they 
 were taken in immense quantity, so that they 
 were sold at sixpence a bushel as manure for 
 the land." 
 
 The sprat, according to Dr. Parnell, breeds 
 early in March ; * it feeds on small crustaceous 
 animals. In Scotland it is called the garvie, 
 or garvie-herring. 
 
 A silvery little fish, well-known as the white- 
 bait, (Clupea alba, Yarrell,) is a visitor to the 
 Thames, remaining in the brackish water from 
 the beginning of April to the end of September. 
 Donovan and others regarded the whitebait as 
 the young of the shad an error now rectified. 
 Is is not only in the Thames that whitebait 
 is taken ; it is found in the Hamble, which 
 flows into the Southampton water, and accord- 
 ing to Dr. Parnell, it inhabits the Frith of 
 Forth in considerable numbers during the 
 summer months, especially in the neighbour- 
 hood of Queensferry. 
 
 In the Thames, the whitebait advances with 
 the flow of the tide as high as Woolwich or Black- 
 wall, returning with the ebb to the wider por- 
 tions of the river, where the water is permanently 
 
 * Mr. Yarrell has seen the sprat taken in June, then in 
 roe. 
 
THE WHITEBAIT. 139 
 
 brackish, and not as at Woolwich only during 
 high tide, after the influx has arrived at its 
 maximum. 
 
 The whitebait fishing is by means of a fine 
 bag-net, with a mouth of about three feet 
 square ; the boat is moored in the tide way, 
 and the mouth of the net does not dip more 
 than four feet below the surface. 
 
 The delicacy of the whitebait needs no 
 comment. Pennant states it to be delicious, 
 and says that epicures of the lower order 
 resort to the taverns adjacent to the places 
 where it is taken for the purpose of enjoying 
 it. Mr. Yarrell makes the following comment 
 on Pennant's observations : " What might have 
 been the particular grade of persons who were 
 in the habit of visiting Greenwich to eat white- 
 bait in the days when Pennant wrote, I am 
 unable to state ; but at present the fashion of 
 enjoying the excellent course of fish, as served 
 up either at Greenwich or Blackwall, is sanc- 
 tioned by the highest authorities, from the 
 court at St. James's Palace in the west, to the 
 lord mayor and his court in the east, including 
 the cabinet ministers, and the philosophers of 
 the Royal Society." 
 
 It is to Mr. Yarrell that we owe the discrimi- 
 nation of the true specific distinctness of this fish. 
 
140 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 Two species of shad, termed by Mr. Yarrell 
 the twaite shad (Alosa fintd) and the allice 
 shad, (Alosa communis,*) enter our rivers at 
 certain seasons of the year, but generally in 
 May, the former being common in the 
 Thames, the latter rare in that river, but 
 abundant in the Severn, as is the twaite shad 
 also. These fish inhabit the northern seas, 
 and are doubtless " the large sort of herrings " 
 mentioned by Crantz, as occasionally taken 
 along the south of Greenland. (See also Ander- 
 son's Account of Iceland.) 
 
 The allice shad exceeds the twaite shad in size, 
 and usually weighs about four pounds ; the 
 twaite seldom so much as two pounds, and is a 
 far inferior fish for the table. It differs from 
 the larger species in possessing teeth, and being 
 marked with several dark spots in a line along 
 its silvery sides. 
 
 We must not leave this group of fishes with- 
 out noticing one which is regarded by the cook 
 as very important. We allude to the anchovy. 
 
 Though the anchovy (Engraulis encrasico- 
 lus) is not very abundant in our seas, still it is 
 not unfrequently taken, and may be fairly 
 ranked among British fishes. During the 
 winter, it is found in the Cornish sea, and has 
 been taken on the Hampshire coast, in the 
 
THE ANCHOVY. 141 
 
 Bristol Channel, and some other localities. In 
 the Mediterranean it is very common, and 
 among the ancients it was in high esteem, a 
 liquor termed garum being prepared from it. 
 
 Large quantities of pickled anchovies are 
 imported into England ; each fish is deprived of 
 its head, gills, heart, and other viscera, before 
 being pickled, otherwise the condiments would 
 be intensely bitter in fact, it was anciently 
 believed to have its gall in the head. 
 
 We have no means of estimating the quanti- 
 ties of anchovy imported into England ; but the 
 total must be immense, when we consider that 
 anchovies pickled, and anchovy sauce, are found 
 so generally on dinner tables throughout our 
 land, and that in every Italian warehouse and 
 fish-shop an abundant store is ready for 
 purchase. 
 
142 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FISHES WITH SOFT FIN-RAYS, AND THE VENTRAL 
 FINS DIRECTLY BENEATH THE PECTORAL. 
 
 WE may now turn to the second division of 
 the malacopterygious order of osseous fishes, 
 termed "Malacopterygii sub-brachiales" in which 
 the ventral fins are placed immediately below 
 the pectoral, the internal bones sustaining the 
 latter, giving attachment to those supporting 
 the former as a fixed base. 
 
 The family of the cod-fish, (Gadidce,*) which 
 first presents itself, includes many species ; 
 among these we may first notice the common 
 cod-fish (Morrln.ua vulgaris.) 
 
 The cod-fish, of which we have mentioned 
 two varieties, namely, the long-nosed, dark, 
 " Doggerbank cod," and the blunt-nosed, yel- 
 lowish, " Scotch cod," is widely spread in the 
 seas of Europe and North America. It does 
 not, however, exist in the Mediterranean. If 
 
THE COD. 143 
 
 we consider the thousands to whom the capture 
 and curing of this fish afford employment, and 
 the extent of its sale, both fresh .and salted, 
 within the British islands alone, we cannot 
 help ranking it amongst the most important of 
 the productions of the sea, which an all-wise 
 Creator has appointed for the benefit of the 
 human race. 
 
 We shall not attempt to enumerate various 
 stations along the coasts of Scotland, England, 
 and Ireland, where the cod-fishery is carried 
 on. Formerly the London market was sup- 
 plied from Scotland and the Doggerbank, but 
 within the last few years numbers have been 
 procured from the coasts of Lincolnshire, Nor- 
 folk, Suffolk, and even Essex. 
 
 The cod is a ravenous fish, inhabiting deep 
 water, varying from twenty to forty -five 
 fathoms, where sand-banks afford a favourable 
 feeding-ground. In such situations there is an 
 assemblage -not only of cod, but of other white 
 fish, the stronger making the weaker their 
 prey. Besides fish, crabs and testaceous mol- 
 lusks are the food of the cod, and numbers of 
 these are often taken from its stomach. As the 
 cod keeps to the ground at the bottom of a deep 
 sea, nets are not employed in its fishery, but 
 hooks and lines, variously arranged on different 
 
144 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 parts of the coast. One mode is by bulters. 
 We must suppose a long rope, to which, at 
 given intervals, short lines of five or six feet 
 long are attached, at a distance from each other 
 of more than twice their length, to prevent the 
 entanglement of the hooks ; each of these short 
 lines or snoods is armed with a hook, and 
 above, the threads of the line are loosely ar- 
 ranged in parallel order, to prevent the teeth of 
 the fish from snapping off the hook and escap- 
 ing. In slack streams, this long array of fines 
 and hooks is deposited in the water, and se- 
 cured at full stretch with buoys, buoy-ropes, 
 and grapples. The main rope is shot across 
 the tidal influx, by which means the snoods 
 and their hooks are carried out from the bulter 
 line, and thus disposed in due order. Various 
 small fish, and whelks, limpets, etc., are used 
 for baits. The fishermen now wait the flow 
 and ebb of the tide ; they then examine their 
 lines, and disengage the fish held captives. 
 Sometimes a little cork is fixed about six inches 
 from each hook, to raise the bait a little above 
 the mud or sea- weed, thus presenting it more 
 conspicuously as a tempting morsel to the 
 fish. 
 
 In other instances, various sorts of hand-lines 
 are used, each armed with two hooks : one 
 
THE COD. 145 
 
 man manages two of such lines, and the num- 
 ber of fish taken by the fishermen of a single 
 vessel is often very great. Mr. Yarrell says, 
 that he was told by the master of fishing 
 vessels trading for the London market, that 
 eight men, fishing under his orders, off the 
 Doggefbank, in twenty-five fathoms of water, 
 have taken eighty score of cod in one day. 
 
 The cod, after their capture, are transferred 
 to well-boats, which come up the river as high 
 as Gravesend, with the fish alive, the water 
 being so far sufficiently brackish. From this 
 depot they are sent, by speedy conveyance, to 
 Billingsgate. The salted sounds, or air-blad- 
 ders of the cod, are sold in the London market, 
 and salted cod is well-known. 
 
 Cod-fish is in perfection from the end of 
 October to Christmas ; the breeding season is 
 in February, and nine millions of eggs have 
 been found in the roe of a single female. 
 During the summer and autumn, young cod-fish 
 abound around our shores, and advance up the 
 estuary of the Thames ; they acquire a length 
 of twelve or fifteen inches before winter ; num- 
 bers are taken by means of lines. 
 
 Large cod-fish are not uncommon ; Pennant 
 records one of the weight of seventy-eight pounds, 
 caught at Scarborough ; and Mr. Yarrell, one 
 
146 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 of sixty pounds, caught in the Bristol Channel. 
 Such overgrown fish, however, are very indif- 
 ferent. In some of the salt water ponds of 
 Scotland cod-fish are kept, as in a sort of pre- 
 serve ; they are properly supplied with food, 
 and kept in good condition, but we believe they 
 do not breed. 
 
 The coasts of the British islands abound 
 with vast shoals of the haddock, which wander 
 about in quest of food, but they never make 
 their way either into the Baltic or the Medi- 
 terranean. The haddock (Morrhua ceglefinus) 
 never equals the cod-fish in size, being seldom 
 more than two or three pounds in weight, 
 though instances of this fish weighing ten and 
 even sixteen pounds are on record. The 
 breeding season is February and March. Had- 
 docks are caught by trawl-nets, and also by 
 hand-lines, by which means great numbers are 
 taken for the different markets, those of London 
 being largely supplied by the Yarmouth fisher- 
 men. The haddock is too well-known to need 
 description ; it is remarkable for the black 
 mark on each side of the back. 
 
 A fish, called the pont, or whiting pont, the 
 smeltie, the bib, the kleg, and blinds, in different 
 counties, (Morrhua lusca,) is common in most 
 parts along our coast, being often in abundance, 
 
THE WHITING. 147 
 
 especially about the mouth of the Thames. It 
 ranges as far as Greenland, and is found on the 
 coasts of Holland and France. 
 
 This fish, the flesh of which is well-flavoured 
 has the power of inflating the membrane cover- 
 ing the eyes and the adjacent parts of the head, 
 which produces a singular appearance. Like 
 the whiting, it has a dark mark at the base of 
 the pectoral fins. The trawl-net, and hooks 
 and lines, are employed in its capture, the use 
 of them depending on the nature of the fishing 
 ground. It measures twelve or fourteen inches 
 in length. 
 
 Another small fish, called the poor, or power 
 cod, (Morrhua minuta,) is found on the coast of 
 Cornwall and Devonshire, and perhaps of other 
 parts of our island ; but, from its size, (being 
 only about five inches long, or, perhaps, some- 
 times seven or eight,) it is not sought after by 
 fishermen, whom a richer prize alone can re- 
 munerate. It is said to visit the Baltic in 
 shoals, followed by the cod and other fishes, 
 which make it their prey. Hence its appear- 
 ance rejoices the Baltic fisherman. 
 
 Common upon our coasts, and those of Hol- 
 land and France, and upon the various banks 
 of our seas, the whiting (Merlangus vulgaris) 
 occurs in abundance. This fish is much es- 
 
148 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 teemed for the whiteness and delicacy of its 
 flesh, and as it is taken nearly all the year 
 round, (though it is in the highest perfection 
 during winter,) there is a constant supply in 
 the market. 
 
 Large individuals of this species are some- 
 times to be met with ; we have heard, from 
 undoubted authority, of one which weighed 
 seven pounds, but few are seen in the shops of 
 the fishmongers much exceeding a pound and 
 a half in weight. This fish is taken by lines, 
 and, being very voracious, it eagerly seizes the 
 bait. It feeds upon fishes, small crabs, mol- 
 lusks, etc. The whiting is too well-known to 
 need description. 
 
 In the high northern seas, a species of this 
 family, termed the coal-fish, or sillock, (Mer- 
 langus carlonarius^ is extremely abundant. 
 It visits the shores of the British islands, and 
 especially those of Scotland and the Scottish 
 isles, where it is taken in considerable num- 
 bers, and is eaten, both in its fresh state, and 
 also when salted and dried, but its flesh is 
 coarse and dry. 
 
 Young coal-fish make their appearance early 
 in the summer, and are taken by the hook and 
 line, as are also the adult fish, which are ex- 
 tremely voracious. The latter are in the best 
 
THE POLLACK. 149 
 
 state for the table in winter ; they associate in 
 large shoals, which rove about in quest of prey, 
 and are readily attracted by the baits of the 
 fisherman. The coal-fish often attains the 
 weight of twenty or thirty pounds, but it is 
 more esteemed when of a smaller size. The 
 general colour of this fish above, as far as the 
 silvery white lateral lines, is dusky black ; 
 the sides below the lateral line are greyish 
 white, with golden reflexions. Both the adult 
 and the young have numerous local names. 
 
 There is another species, termed the pollack, 
 or lythe, (Merlangus pollachiusj) common in 
 our seas, and caught on various parts of our 
 coasts ; it is much superior to the coal-fish in 
 the delicacy of its flesh, the young being almost 
 equal to whiting. The pollack is extremely 
 active and voracious, seizing the baited hook 
 with great avidity, and is consequently cap- 
 tured with little difficulty. The general colour 
 of this species is olive brown on the upper 
 parts ; the sides are silvery, spotted with 
 yellow ; the lateral line, which makes a bold 
 curve over the pectoral fin, is dusky. 
 
 The hake (Merlucius vulgaris) is another fish 
 of the present family, found in the northern 
 seas, and common along the coast of our island, 
 and of the adjacent continent. It is taken in 
 
150 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 the Mediterranean, and its name, in the Pro- 
 venial language, is merlan. This fish is not 
 very often to be seen in the London markets, 
 although Portsmouth and Plymouth receive an 
 abundant supply from the fishing-boats on the 
 Devonshire coast. It is usually captured in 
 nets, 'but lines are also used. Its flesh is 
 coarse; it is, however, generally salted and 
 dried for exportation to the continent. In this 
 state, in common with the cod, it is called 
 stock-fish. In the bay of Galway, and on the 
 Nymph-bank, off the coast of Waterford, the 
 hake is extremely abundant ; and in the latter 
 situation six men, Mr. Yarrell says, have 
 taken, with lines, one thousand in a single 
 night. The hake equals or exceeds the cod- 
 fish in size ; its scales are large ; its general 
 colour is dusky above, and paler on the lower 
 parts. 
 
 On many parts of our coast, and that of 
 Ireland, the ling (Lota molva) is a common 
 fish, and caught in great numbers ; the greater 
 portion of the ling, which is captured, is salted 
 and dried ; the sound, or air-bladders, are cured 
 separately, like those of the cod, and the liver 
 yields a plentiful supply of oil, used by the 
 poorer class in many districts, and in the 
 Orkneys and western isles, for burning in 
 
THE BAUDOT. 151 
 
 lamps. This oil has been held in high esteem 
 for the cure of chronic rheumatism ; it must be 
 taken in doses of half an ounce or an ounce, but 
 its disgusting smell and taste, which are suffi- 
 cient to excite nausea, prevent its frequent use. 
 Cod-liver oil, or refined ling- liver oil, is at pre- 
 sent in vogue as a medicine. What its specific 
 properties may be we know not. 
 
 The ling is active and voracious, and is 
 generally between three and four feet in length, 
 sometimes more ; but its form is slender. Its 
 general colour is dusky grey, passing into 
 white on the under parts. 
 
 In some of our rivers, as the Trent, the Cam, 
 and those of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, Dur- 
 ham and Yorkshire, a fish known as the barbot, 
 or eel-pout, (Lota vulgarisj) is to be met with, 
 but in other rivers it is scarce or does not 
 exist. It is a slender fish, weighing about two 
 pounds on an average, and its flesh is excellent. 
 This fish is fond of lurking in holes, or under 
 large stones, where it watches for its prey. It is 
 extremely tenacious of life, and will live long out 
 of the water, like the eel, although its gill- 
 opening is large and its mouth wide. It has 
 been introduced into the lake of Geneva, and 
 might be placed with advantage in the meres 
 and lakes of our island. The general colour is 
 
152 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 yellowish brown, marbled with a darker tint. 
 Its surface is very slimy. 
 
 Passing over several fish of little general 
 interest, as the rocklings, the torsk, the fork- 
 beards, etc., we may advance to the family of 
 flat fish, as they are commonly termed, (Pleuro- 
 nectidce,) from their peculiar shape. Unlike 
 the rays, which are flattened vertically, these 
 fish are flattened laterally, that is, from side 
 to side the brown surface of a sole, for ex- 
 ample, is only one side, and the white surface, 
 on which it reposes, another side and the 
 head is as if it had been wrenched round and 
 crushed flat in a distorted position. When the 
 sole, on any sudden alarm, swims rapidly, it 
 raises itself so as to show the white as well as 
 the brown side, and shoots along. The flesh of 
 many of these flat-fish is in high esteem. The 
 habits of these fishes are in accordance with 
 their form ; they prefer tranquil bays, sand- 
 banks, and spots where the water is muddy ; 
 as they lie flat on the white side, the position 
 of their eyes gives them a great range of 
 vision, and enables them to watch for their 
 prey ; while the brown or dark colour of their 
 exposed side, blending with that of the bed 
 around them, tends to their own concealment. 
 These fish are mostly in shoals, and when they 
 
THE PLAICE. 153 
 
 move along leisurely, a little elevated above the 
 bed on which they repose, they continue in 
 their horizontal position ; but when the shoal 
 takes fright, all, at the same instant, show the 
 white side, and dart forward with arrow- 
 like velocity for a certain distance, but soon 
 again settle into their previous position. They 
 are essentially ground-fish, and their food con- 
 sists chiefly of small Crustacea, marine insects, 
 mollusks, etc., which they obtain in abundance. 
 They are very tenacious of life ; and some 
 species may be seen leaping on the board of 
 the fishmonger, in London and its precincts. 
 
 Of these flat fishes the plaice (Platissa vulga- 
 ris) is well-known ; it is abundant on the Eng- 
 lish coast, wherever sand-banks and muddy 
 beds invite its residence ; it is taken both 
 with the line and the trawl-net. In Scotland, 
 the smaller sized plaice are termed fleuks ; 
 those taken on a particular station off the 
 Sussex coast, remarkable for the brilliancy of 
 their orange red spots, are termed diamond plaice, 
 and the station is called the diamond ground. 
 The plaice occasionally grows to the weight of 
 ten, twelve, or fourteen pounds, but the 
 average size varies from one to three or four 
 pounds. Bushels are brought into the London 
 market, and have sometimes been sold at a 
 
154 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 penny the dozen, each fish weighing three 
 pounds on an average. This fish will live and 
 thrive in fresh water, but so abundant is it, 
 that its cultivation in such a way in our coun- 
 try is useless. It is in the best condition at 
 the end of May, and throughout the next 
 month. 
 
 In all our bays and creeks, and in the 
 mouths of our rivers, and far inland up the 
 rivers, the flounder, fleuk, or flook, (Platessa 
 flesuSj) is very common. It is found in the 
 Thames as high as Teddington ; it abounds in 
 the Mole, and in the Avon, near Bath ; we 
 have seen shoals of it in the Severn, near Bewd- 
 ley. It will live in fresh water ponds, as well 
 as in the sea, and out of the water is so tena- 
 cious of life, that it may be sent from one part 
 of the country to another with little diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 In the Thames, the fishermen take this fish 
 by means of a tuck-net, which is so managed 
 as to make a circular sweep, inclosing within 
 it whatever fish may be swimming in the 
 spot. The flounder is generally small, but 
 specimens of two or three pounds' weight are 
 occasionally to be met with. All are so well 
 acquainted with this fish, that we need not 
 describe it. 
 
THE HOLIBUT. 155 
 
 A small flat fish, known as the dab, or salt 
 water fleuk, (Platessa limanda^) abounds on the 
 sandy portions of our coast, and is sent in vast 
 numbers to the London market. It is pre- 
 ferred to the flounder, and is in full condition 
 during the early spring months. A distinct 
 species, the town -dab, lemon -dab, or smooth 
 dab, (Platessa microcephalus,) is also taken 
 on many parts of our coast, but it is less 
 common than the preceding species. Two 
 other species of dab, the long rough dab and 
 the pole, are occasionally found on our shores. 
 
 In the northern seas, a large flat fish, known 
 as the holibut, (Hippoglossus vulgaris,) is very 
 common ; it occurs on the shores of Scotland, 
 and the north of Ireland. The size to which 
 this fish grows is enormous ; individuals have 
 been captured nearly eight feet in length, and 
 terrible must be the struggle in overcoming a 
 fish of such power, and tenacity of life. Speci- 
 mens of four and five feet long are often to be 
 seen in the London markets. The flesh of this 
 fish is dry and coarse, and in England but little 
 in request. It is one of the fishes, however, on 
 which the Greenlanders subsist. Crantz, who 
 describes the holibut, says : " The largest are a 
 yard and a half or two yards long, about half 
 so broad, and a full span thick ; they weigh 
 
156 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 from one to two hundred pounds and more. 
 They are said to be so large in Norway, that 
 one of them salted will fill upwards of a quarter 
 cask."* The Greenlanders cut strips of the 
 flesh of this fish, which they dry for use in the 
 sun and air. Its flesh is prepared in a similar 
 manner in Iceland, and also pickled with salt. 
 
 When the holibut finds itself hooked, its 
 struggles are desperate, and it cannot be secured 
 without considerable exertion. 
 
 That highly esteemed fish, the turbot, or 
 Bannock fleuk, (Rhombus maximus,) is found 
 on many parts of our coast, and there is a con- 
 siderable fishery off the shores of Durham and 
 Yorkshire, as well as along our southern coun- 
 ties, but the London market is chiefly supplied 
 by the Dutch fishermen. The fishing season 
 commences in March, and terminates in August. 
 Both lines and trawl-nets are used. A writer 
 of great authority says, the Dutch are sup- 
 posed to have drawn not less than 80,000 a 
 year for the supply of this fish to the London 
 market alone,f and " the Danes from 12,000 
 
 * They have been taken weighing upwards of five hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 t The English fishermen purchase at sea largely Qf the 
 Dutch, nevertheless, the Dutch send boats laden with turbot 
 up the Thames, each boat bringing about one hundred and fifty 
 fish, and paying a duty of Q. 
 
THE TUHBOT AND BRILL. 157 
 
 to 15,000 a year for sauce to this luxury of the 
 table, extracted from a million of lobsters, taken 
 on the rocky shores of Norway, though our 
 own shores are in many parts plentifully supplied 
 with this marine insect, equal in goodness to 
 those of Norway." The finest turbot are taken 
 on the Flemish banks, and the banks called 
 Broad Forties. Excellent fish are also taken 
 by the French fishermen, on the two large 
 sand -banks, called the Yarne and Ridge, 
 stretching towards the French coast in the 
 channel, not many miles from Dover. These 
 they sell to the English out at sea, or send into 
 Dover. 
 
 Turbot of huge size are occasionally taken, 
 some of which have weighed from fifty to 
 seventy pounds ; and one was caught in 1832, 
 near Whitby, which weighed a hundred and 
 ninety pounds. The average size is from three 
 to ten pounds' weight. 
 
 The London markets are abundantly sup- 
 plied with the brill, (EJwmbus vulgaris,) the 
 bonnet fleuk of the Scotch. This fish, which 
 often attains to an enormous size, is abundant 
 on our southern coast, and all the localities 
 where the turbot occurs. It inhabits deep 
 water and sandy bays. The brill is inferior 
 to the turbot, its flesh being destitute of that 
 
158 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 firmness which is so remarkable in the turbot, 
 and for which it is so much prized. 
 
 Among these fishes, one of the most valuable 
 is the sole, (Solea vulgaris^) which, if it were 
 scarce, would be in high estimation. This fish 
 is found around the shores of our island, and 
 along those of the adjacent continent ; it exists 
 in the Baltic, and also in the Mediterranean. 
 It usually tenants beds of sand, where it feeds 
 on testaceous mollusks and similar prey. The 
 sole is taken by the trawl-net, and there are 
 numerous fishing stations along our coast, 
 especially off Sussex and Devonshire, where 
 vast numbers are captured, the supply appear- 
 ing inexhaustible. The sole is in season all the 
 year round, excepting during the latter part of 
 February, when its flesh becomes flabby. In a 
 few weeks, however, it recovers and continues in 
 excellent condition. Mr. Yarrell states, that in 
 the course of one twelvemonth, eighty-six thou- 
 sand bushels of soles were received at Billings- 
 gate market. Occasionally, this fish is to be 
 seen of large size, weighing eight or ten pounds 
 the pair ; and there is an account of one by 
 Mr. Yarrell, which was twenty-six inches long, 
 eleven inches and a half wide, and weighed 
 nine pounds. It was in the Totness market, 
 June 21, 1826. Torbay is noted for its fine 
 
THE LEMON SOLE AND LUMP-SUCKER. 159 
 
 soles, and extensive sole fishery. The sole will 
 live and thrive in fresh water, and numbers 
 reside and breed in the brackish water of the 
 Arun, from its mouth to a distance up the 
 stream of five miles. They are said to be of 
 excellent quality. These Arun soles are re- 
 ported to bury themselves in the sand, or mud, 
 during the cold months ; the season for trawl- 
 ing for them extending from May to November. 
 
 An allied species, the lemon sole, (Solea 
 pegusa,) first described by Mr. Yarrell, is occa- 
 sionally taken off the Sussex coast ; it is wider 
 in proportion, and thicker than the common 
 sole, and its colour is a light brown, with a 
 mixture of orange yellow. 
 
 Another rare species is the variegated sole, 
 (Monochirus linguatulus,) which has been cap- 
 tured on three or four occasions. 
 
 In the shops of the London fishmongers, a 
 strange-looking, rounded fish may often be seen 
 exposed to view. It is of a dark blue colour, 
 varied with pale blue and purple, the lips and 
 under surface being of a rich orange. This 
 fish is called the lump-sucker, or sea-owl, 
 (Cydopterus lumpus,) and belongs to the family 
 termed Cyclopteridce. It possesses the power 
 of adhering with great tenacity to rocks or 
 stones, by means of its pectoral and ventral 
 
160 BRITISH FISU AND FISHERIES. 
 
 fins, which are united together under the throat, 
 and form a powerful sucker. The lump-sucker 
 is very widely spread in the northern seas. In 
 Greenland it is eaten, and may be seen, accord- 
 ing to Crantz, near the shore in April and 
 May, but at other times is not to be found, as 
 it a browses on the sea-grass in the deep." 
 
 On many parts of the coasts of England, 
 Ireland, and Scotland, this fish is common, and 
 especially in the Orkneys ; its flesh, and parti- 
 cularly that of the male, is regarded as excel- 
 lent. It is chiefly in April and May that the 
 lump-sucker is taken, as it then approaches 
 the shore for the purpose of breeding. What 
 Crantz says about its browsing on sea-grass is 
 not quite correct ; it is a voracious fish, and 
 preys upon smaller species and various marine 
 insects. The lump-sucker is usually from 
 twelve to eighteen inches long, and from six 
 to eight deep ; the lips are thick and fleshy, 
 and the mouth wide ; the whole surface of tho 
 head and body is covered with small bony 
 tubercles, among which are some rows of a 
 large size and more prominent than the others. 
 The eyes are large, and "make it look like a cat 
 or an owl," whence one of its common appel- 
 lations sea-owl. * 
 
THE EEL. 161 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FISHES WITHOUT VENTRAL FINS. 
 
 WE shall now pass to the third order of osseous 
 fishes, the Apodal, or footless, (Malacopterygii,) 
 so called because they are destitute of ventral 
 fins. The fishes of this order are elongated in 
 form, and have a soft and slimy skin, which, 
 although not without minute scales, may be 
 called scaleless, as far as an ordinary observer is 
 concerned. To give without further preface an 
 idea of these fishes, we have only to state that the 
 eels (Murcenidce) constitute the typical family. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell discriminates three distinct 
 species of fresh water eels, if not four, and 
 Cuvier distinguishes four, which have all 
 been confounded together, although, when the 
 species are compared, the distinctive charac- 
 ters are not difficult to be discovered. The 
 species figured arid described by Mr. Yarrell 
 are the sharp-nosed eel, (Anguilla acutirostris,) 
 the broad-nosed, or glut -eel, (A. latirostns^) 
 
162 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 and the snig-eel, (A. mediorostris^) whicl last 
 is of a yellow colour, and found in the Hamp- 
 shire Avon, and in the Worcestershire Avon, 
 where, in contradistinction to the silver eel, it is 
 termed the yellow eel. In some counties, the 
 term snig is applied to eels in general, and the 
 term grig to young eels ; there is, however, a 
 small eel in the Thames, called grig by the 
 fishermen, which is Cuvier's anguille plat-bee, 
 regarded by him as a distinct species, and 
 figured as such in Mrs. Bowdich's work on 
 Fresh Water Fishes. 
 
 Our object, however, is not to enter upon 
 minutiae, yet we may observe, that of these 
 species the broad-nosed, or glut eel, called by 
 the Severn fishermen the frog-mouthed eel, is 
 thicker in the body in proportion to its length 
 than the others, and has a thicker, softer, and 
 more slimy skin. The sharp-nosed eel is the 
 species most usually seen in the London mar- 
 kets, and of which thousands are imported 
 from Holland. Mr. Yarrell states, that there 
 are two companies in Holland, having five 
 capacious well-vessels each, in which large 
 quantities of eels are preserved alive till wanted. 
 " One or more of those vessels may be con- 
 stantly seen lying off Billingsgate ; the others 
 go to Holland for fresh supplies, each bringing 
 
THE EEL. 163 
 
 a cargo of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds' weight of 
 live eels, for which the Dutch merchant pays a 
 duty of 13 per cargo for his permission to 
 sell." Eegulations of this nature are, of course, 
 ever changing. 
 
 The eel inhabits rivers, meres, lakes, and 
 ponds, but it is highly susceptible of cold, and 
 during intense frosts, accompanied by a piercing 
 east wind, thousands of eels, though buried in- 
 the mud, have been known to perish, and, 
 crawling from their lurking holes in the agonies 
 of death, have been washed down the stream to 
 the tideway, and thrown upon the beach. Many 
 instances of this kind are on record. In the 
 high northern regions there are no eels none 
 exist in the great rivers of Siberia, in the 
 Wolga, or in the lower Danube, which receives 
 a vast influx of Alpine water, brought by the 
 Inn, the Fraun, the Save, and Drave. Few or 
 no eels exist in our mountain streams. 
 
 In lakes and ponds, or in rivers remote from 
 the sea, the eel breeds, depositing its spawn 
 about the end of April or beginning of May. 
 But when the way is clear, eels migrate in vast 
 numbers to the mixed and brackish water of 
 the estuaries of rivers, during the autumn, 
 where they deposit their spawn in warmer 
 water during that season, or very early in the 
 
164 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 spring ; and in the months of April and May 
 following, myriads of young eels, about three 
 inches in length, ascend the rivers, and fix 
 their stations in different localities. Doubtless, 
 many of the young remain permanently in the 
 brackish water of the estuary, or even in the 
 salt water near the river's mouth. With respect 
 to the adult eels, their return is not clearly 
 ascertained ; nor are we to suppose that all the 
 adult eels in tidal rivers descend to the sea, for 
 we know that they bury themselves in the mud 
 to the depth of twelve or fifteen inches, and 
 generally in such a spot as is covered .by the 
 water of a land- drain, when the tide is at its 
 ebb. " In Somersetshire," says Mr. Yarrell, 
 " the people know how to find the holes in the 
 banks of rivers in which eels are laid up, by 
 the hoar-frost not lying over them as it does 
 elsewhere, and dig them out in heaps."* 
 Nevertheless, that numbers of eels make an 
 autumnal descent is unquestionable, and in 
 tideway rivers, such as the Thames, permanent 
 erections are constructed for their capture 
 during their progress, trap-baskets of wicker- 
 work, and other kinds of cages, being fixed 
 in a proper manner, so as to intercept and 
 
 * In the upper Danube, about Ulm, eels abound, but do not 
 migrate to the sea. 
 
THE EEL. 165 
 
 secure them. Eels are also captured by night- 
 lines and by eel-spears. 
 
 The eel lives long out of the water, and 
 sometimes, during the warm nights of summer, 
 when the dew is on the grass, voluntarily quits 
 the pond or river, and proceeds with an undu- 
 latory motion on land, either in quest of worms 
 and other prey, or in order to gain some other 
 piece of water ; and thus it often happens that 
 ineres or ponds become stocked with this fish, 
 though none had been purposely introduced. 
 One of the finest eels we ever saw we caught in 
 a swampy spot, several hundred yards from the 
 river Bollen, in Cheshire ; and we have seen 
 them in the dusk of evening, moving over the 
 wet grass of fields bordering the Severn. 
 
 The eel is extremely voracious ; it preys 
 upon worms, insects, small fishes, and the eggs 
 of fish ; it also eats vegetable matters, and, as 
 we have more than once seen, will swim about 
 the surface of a pond, nibbling the floating 
 leaves of the water-plants. 
 
 Unlike most fishes, the eel is of slow growth, 
 and does not breed until two or three years 
 have passed. The common sharp-nosed species 
 attains, sometimes, to a very large size, and 
 individuals have been occasionally caught 
 weighing upwards of twenty pounds. 
 
166 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 Along the rocky parts of our shore, and 
 about the mouths of rivers, where sand-banks 
 stretch out into the sea, that large marine 
 species, the conger-eel, {Conger vulgaris,) is 
 often very abundant. It is caught in great 
 numbers on the Cornish coast, by night-lines ; 
 and a single boat will often capture a ton, or 
 even two tons' weight of this fish. Its flesh is 
 principally used by the poorer classes ; it is 
 white and firm, but of indifferent flavour. 
 
 Congers hide in the holes of rocks beneath 
 the sea, or in recesses covered with masses of 
 sea-weed, and often, also, bury themselves in 
 the sand or mud ; they are extremely ferocious, 
 and a diver, residing at Herne Bay, told us 
 that, on one occasion, a large conger, which he 
 had disturbed, swam several times around him, 
 as if meditating an attack, but ultimately, to his 
 relief, swam slowly away. It must be con- 
 fessed, that a large conger, the strength of 
 which is prodigious, and its powers of jaw 
 terrible, must be no very despicable antagonist 
 to contend with in its native element. We have 
 seen specimens of this fish eight and ten feet in 
 length, and upwards of a hundred pounds in 
 weight ; such a fish, when dragged into a 
 boat, would require both skill and courage to 
 manage. 
 
THE MUR^INA AND SAND-LANCE. 167 
 
 The "conger feeds on fishes and crabs and 
 other Crustacea ; it breeds in the winter. Vast 
 numbers of congers are taken by the French 
 fishermen, who find a ready sale for this iish 
 in the French markets. 
 
 We may here allude to that voracious fish, 
 the mursena, so much esteemed by the epicures 
 of ancient Rome. The muraena (Murcena 
 Helena) can scarcely be classed among British 
 fishes, though one specimen was caught by a 
 fisherman of Polperro, in 1834. It is, however, 
 common in the Mediterranean, and is noted for 
 its voracity and the severity of its bite ; though 
 extremely beautiful in colouring, it is a hideous 
 fish, with small eyes, tumid cheeks, and wrinkled 
 skin ; its teeth are in single rows, long and 
 sharp ; the body is rounded anteriorly, com- 
 pressed and tapering towards the tail. The 
 ground colour of the anterior parts is a fine 
 yellow, of the hinder parts a rich purple, the 
 whole surface being marbled with somewhat 
 annular markings, and sprinkled with innu- 
 merable spots of white, yellow, golden, brown, 
 and purple. 
 
 On many parts of our shores a little slender 
 eel-like fish, five or six inches in length, is very 
 common. It is termed the sand-lance, (Ammo- 
 dytes lancea^) and is of a silvery brightness. It 
 
168 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 is captured in large quantities, but principally 
 as a bait for the sea-lines, and bushels are 
 sold to the French fishermen. Its under-jaw 
 projects in a singular manner, and enables it to 
 burrow into the sand, which it does on the 
 ebbing of the tide, and emerges from its hole on 
 the reflux. This fish is known as the riggle on 
 the coast of Sussex. We have an allied species 
 of larger size, but similar habits, called the 
 sand-eel, (Ammodytes toUanus.) It is not very 
 common. 
 
 The fifth order of osseous fishes, established 
 by Cuvier, is termed Lophobranchii, in refer- 
 ence to the structure of the gills, which present 
 the appearance of little rounded tufts, disposed 
 in pairs along the branchial arches. They are 
 covered by a large gill-flap attached all round, 
 leaving only a small aperture for the passage of 
 the water. These fishes, besides, have the 
 whole body invested in a sort of cuirass, or 
 tesselated armour, producing ridges and angu- 
 larities. To this group belong five species of 
 pipe-fishes found upon our coasts, remarkable 
 for the length and slenderness of their body, and 
 the tenacity and prolongation of the snout, into 
 a sort of tube, with a small mouth at its extre- 
 mity. The males of some of the species have 
 an elongated pouch under the tail, closed by 
 
THE GREAT PIPE-FISH. 169 
 
 two folding membranes, and in which the eggs 
 deposited by the female are hatched, although 
 the time and mode in which they are transferred 
 to this receptacle is unknown. Unlike most 
 fish, the pouched pipe-fishes are strongly 
 attached to their young, and when danger 
 threatens, the pouch serves them as a place of 
 retreat. Of these fishes, the great pipe-fish 
 (Syngnathus acus) is one of the most common, 
 and is often K.ept by the fishermen in a dried 
 state to sell as a curiosity to sea-side visitors. 
 It is from one to two feet in length, when fully 
 grown, and is of a pale yellowish brown, with 
 dark and broad bands at regular intervals. 
 " This species," says Mr. Couch, " may be seen 
 slowly moving about, in a singular manner, 
 horizontally or perpendicularly, with the head 
 downwards or upwards, and in every attitude 
 of contortion in search of food, which seems 
 chiefly to be water insects." Mr. Yarrell 
 observes, that these fishes "are supposed to be 
 able, by dilating their throat at pleasure, to 
 draw their food up their cylindrical beak-like 
 mouth, as water is drawn up the pipe of a 
 syringe." The male of this species is furnished 
 with a pouch. 
 
 Closely allied to the pipe-fishes are the 
 Hippocampi, of which one species the short- 
 
 F2 
 
170 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 nosed hippocampus, is to be met with on dif- 
 ferent parts of our coast. This fish, often called 
 the sea-horse, is of a singular form, the head 
 resembling that of a hog or tapir, with a slen- 
 der tubular snout, at the end of which is a 
 small mouth. The neck is arched like that 
 of a horse, and the protuberant abdomen may 
 represent the chest ; the tail is long, tapering, 
 and prehensile ; the dorsal fin is high ; the 
 mail-clad body and tail are traversed by longi- 
 tudinal and transverse ridges, with angles of 
 intersection. 
 
 Specimens of this fish have, it is said, been 
 occasionally found curled up in oyster-shells, 
 but of their general habits little is known ; the 
 following extract from Mr. Yarrell's work is 
 therefore the more interesting : "At the time 
 of writing, June 9, 1835, Mr. Lukis had two 
 female specimens of Hippocampus Irevirostris, 
 then healthy and active, which had been living 
 twelve days in a glass vessel ; their actions 
 equally novel and amusing. An appearance of 
 search for a resting place induced me, says Mr. 
 Lukis, to consult their wishes by placing sea- 
 weed and straws in the vessel ; the desired 
 effect was attained, and has afforded me much 
 to reflect upon in their habits. They now 
 exhibit many of their peculiarities, and few 
 
THE GREAT PIPE-FISH. 171 
 
 subjects of the deep have displayed in prison 
 more sport or more intelligence. 
 
 " When swimming about they maintain a 
 vertical position, but the tail is ready to grasp 
 whatever it meets in the water, quickly 
 entwines in any direction round the weeds, and 
 when fixed the animal intently watches the 
 surrounding objects, and darts at its prey with 
 great dexterity. 
 
 " When both approach each other, they often 
 twist their tails together, and struggle to sepa- 
 rate or attach themselves to the weeds ; this is 
 done by the hinder part of their cheeks, or 
 chin, which is also used for raising the body 
 when a new spot is wanted for the tail to 
 entwine afresh. The eyes move independently, 
 as in the chameleon ; this, with the brilliant 
 irridescence about the head, and its blue bands, 
 forcibly remind the observer of that animal." 
 
 The general colour of this fish is a pale 
 brown, with changeable irridescence, and vari- 
 able tints of blue. The males are furnished 
 with a pouch. Total length, about five inches. 
 Cuvier terms his sixth order of osseous fisjhes, 
 Plectognathi, from the imperfection of their 
 jaws, the bones of which are firmly attached to 
 the palate bones. The general structure of the 
 skeleton is not so hard as in most other osseous 
 
172 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 fishes, and the gill-aperture is merely a small 
 fissure, and the ribs are rudimentary. In some, 
 as the globe-fishes, or diodons, tetraodons, etc., 
 there are no true teeth, but the jaws are armed 
 with a substance like ivory, resembling in form 
 a parrot's beak, but of laminated structure. 
 These successive layers succeed each other in 
 proportion, as the more anterior are worn by 
 the effect of crushing and grinding the sea- 
 weeds and crustaceous animals on which they 
 feed. 
 
 In another family, containing the file-fishes, 
 (Batistes,} and the box-fishes, (Ostracion,) the 
 muzzle is produced and conical, with a small 
 mouth, armed with distinct, but not numerous 
 teeth in each jaw. Some of these fishes feed 
 on corals and sea-weed. 
 
 There are three instances on record of a 
 species of globe-fish (Pennant's globe-fish) 
 having been taken on the coast of Cornwall, 
 wanderers by accident from warmer latitudes. 
 A species of file-fish has once been taken off 
 the Sussex coast. 
 
 Two species of sun-fish are occasionally seen 
 off our coasts, of which the short sun-fish 
 ( Orthagoriscus mold) is the most common. This 
 fish is of a circular form, and though there is a 
 caudal fin, united to the dorsal fin and the 
 
THE SUN-FISH. 173 
 
 under fin, there is no tail. The jaws are armed 
 with an undivided cutting edge. This fish is 
 very shining ; it often grows to a great size, and 
 has been taken weighing three hundred pounds, 
 but such large specimens are very rare. Gene- 
 rally these fishes are observed drifting along as 
 if asleep on their side, but sometimes swimming 
 in the ordinary manner ; they keep much at 
 the bottom of the water, and there feed on sea- 
 weeds. They often, however, ascend in calm 
 sunny weather, and lie basking on the surface, 
 carried along gently with the tidal current. 
 
174 BKITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 
 
 HERE we leave the osseous fishes, and pass to 
 the section of cartilaginous fishes, (Chondrop- 
 terygii^) in which the skeleton is never thoroughly 
 ossified, but remains permanently as tough car- 
 tilage. 
 
 This class, or great section, contains two 
 orders : the first, containing such species as 
 have the gills free ; the second, such as have 
 them fixed. 
 
 First order : GILLS FREE. 
 
 In the fishmongers 7 shops of our metropolis, 
 huge examples of the sturgeon, (Accipenser 
 sturiOj) a fish regarded as royal, is often to be 
 seen. It is, however, only a royal fish when 
 caught in the Thames, within the jurisdiction 
 of the lord mayor, it being by ancient custom 
 reserved for the royal tables. The sturgeon 
 has a long, pointed, conical snout ; the mouth 
 opens underneath in the throat ; the body is 
 
THE STURGEON. 175 
 
 elongated, and defended by indurated plates 
 and spines, arranged in longitudinal rows. This 
 fish is often taken on various parts of our 
 coast, and in the estuaries of rivers, where it is 
 sometimes entangled in the salmon nets. Its 
 struggles are very desperate, and it sometimes 
 occasions much trouble. The flesh of this 
 fish, which is sold in slices, is much esteemed 
 by many ; it is firm and white, like veal, and 
 generally prepared as a stew j with a rich gravy ; 
 it is also preserved by salting. The roe of the 
 sturgeon on the continent is made into a condi- 
 ment, called caviar, and the best isinglass is 
 prepared from the membrane of the air-bladder. 
 In the Caspian Sea, and in the northern dis- 
 tricts of Europe, extensive sturgeon fisheries are 
 established, the roe and air-bladder being the 
 great desiderata. The Eussian fisheries on the 
 Caspian Sea are extremely valuable. In this 
 great inland sea, besides the common sturgeon, 
 two different species exist : one is the great 
 sturgeon, Le Hausen, or Beluga, (Accipenser 
 Haso^) which is from twelve to fifteen, and 
 sometimes twenty feet long, and weighing 
 upwards of two thousand pounds, with a roe 
 of five or six hundred pounds. The other is a 
 smaller species, usually from four to six feet 
 long. It is the sevruga, or sevreja, of the 
 
176 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 Russians, the scherg of the Dutch, (Accipenser 
 helops.) 
 
 The first fishery of the great sturgeon begins 
 in April, at the various stations along the coast. 
 The lines laid down are on the same principle 
 as the bulters and snoods described as made 
 use of in cod-fishing, but of course the tackle 
 is of far greater strength. These lines are 
 examined twice a day, and the fish which are 
 caught are disengaged, and when a rope from 
 shore is passed through their gills, they are 
 put into the water, to be kept alive till the 
 time for cutting them up arrives. A single 
 vessel will sometimes capture fifty of these fish 
 in twenty-four hours. The work of cutting 
 up these fish is managed on planks, along the 
 shore. The sounds are obtained by the isinglass 
 makers ; the roes are put into tubs, of which 
 the preparers of caviar take the charge ; the 
 fish is then cleared of refuse, cut up, and put 
 in layers into brine vats in underground cellars, 
 for the sake of coolness ; after this, the fish 
 are taken out, again sprinkled with salt, and 
 placed on layers in store cellars, lined with ice. 
 One or more large vessels are continually 
 passing to Astracan from the fisheries, and 
 back again, bringing salt and needful imple- 
 ments, and returning with salt-fish, caviar, 
 
THE STURGEON AND SEVRUGA. 177 
 
 isinglass, and fish-skins, which latter, in some 
 parts of Bussia arid Turkey, are made into a 
 sort of leather, or used, when prepared, instead 
 of window-glass. 
 
 After the spring fishery of the great sturgeon 
 is over, that of the sevruga commences, and 
 lasts about a fortnight. This fish is very abun- 
 dant, and a single fishing -vessel, or vataga, 
 sometimes takes from fifteen to twenty thousand. 
 The total number taken in one season has been 
 calculated at 1,300,000, affording the value of 
 16,000 in isinglass, and 40,000 in caviar. 
 Of the common sturgeon, the number captured 
 amounts to 300,000, yielding in isinglass 
 6,500, and in caviar 10,000. 
 
 Late in the autumn, and during the winter, 
 a second fishery of the great sturgeon is car- 
 ried on. Large holes are cut in the ice, for 
 the introduction of the apparatus of lines and 
 hooks, and the fish, when caught, are sent off 
 direct, in a frozen state, to Astracan, by means 
 of sledges. 
 
 It has been calculated that the spring and 
 winter fisheries of the great sturgeon produce, 
 annually, 103,500 fish, which afford 30,000 
 pounds of isinglass, and 414,000 pounds of 
 caviar. 
 
 The common sturgeon of our seas sometimes 
 
178 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 attains to an enormous size ; one recorded by 
 Pennant, which was caught in the Esk, weighed 
 460 pounds ; and in 1S02, a specimen, eight 
 feet long, was caught in a weir below the 
 castle of Shrewsbury, and weighed 190 pounds. 
 The mouth of the sturgeon is destitute of teeth, 
 and it is said to feed principally on mollusks, 
 and various soft substances it may find at the 
 bottom of the water. The under side of the 
 snout is garnished with four barbules or feelers. 
 
 Second order : GILLS FIXED. 
 
 Various specimens of the shark tribe are 
 constant tenants of our seas, and other species 
 are either accidental or regular visitors to our 
 coasts. Some species of this ferocious group 
 produce their young alive ; others produce eggs, 
 if they may be so called, or rather horny cases, 
 of an oblong figure and compressed, in which 
 the young fish is inclosed. These* cases, when 
 empty, are thrown very commonly on our 
 shores ; from each angle long curling appen- 
 dages or filaments project, at least in the eggs 
 of most, as, for example, the small spotted 
 sea-dog (Scy Ilium canicula.) They are known 
 as sea-purses, mermaids* purses, etc. By means 
 of these filaments, or tendrils, they become 
 attached to sea-weeds ; and a small linear 
 fissure, near each end, allows the admission of 
 
THE SPOTTED DOG-FISH AND WHITE SHARK. 179 
 
 water to the inclosed fish, which ultimately 
 escapes by an aperture at one end, which is 
 closed till the fish opens it. 
 
 The small spotted dog-fish (Scyllium canicula) 
 and the large spotted dog-fish (Soy Ilium catulus) 
 are common on our coast, especially its more 
 southern portions. They usually swim low in the 
 water, and hunt for prey in troops, feeding on 
 fishes and Crustacea. Their voracity and their 
 numbers render them very troublesome to the 
 fishermen, for though they are only about two 
 feet in length, they drive shoals of larger and 
 more valuable species from their haunts ; and 
 are, besides, often caught on lines intended for 
 a different capture.' We have never known 
 the dog-fish sold in England as food, but have 
 seen it in the market of Dieppe. 
 
 That dread of the mariner in the tropical 
 seas, the huge and ferocious white shark, 
 (Carcharias vulgaris^) is occasionally seen as a 
 wanderer near our coasts, and more frequently 
 in the Mediterranean, especially in the spring 
 and autumn. The horrible loss of life which 
 this shark has so often occasioned to bathers, 
 or to men that have accidentally fallen over- 
 board, its pertinacity in following the ship, its 
 voracity, and its tremendous struggles when 
 hauled on deck, have been often described, and 
 
180 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 are the theme of many a sailor. Happily it is 
 not a frequent visitor to our coast, nor a long- 
 continued resident when it appears. 
 
 Another species, the blue shark, (Carcharias 
 glaucus), remarkable for the slenderness of its 
 body, inhabits the Mediterranean, and period- 
 ically visits the Cornish coast, to the great 
 injury of the fishermen. Mr. Yarrell quotes 
 the following details, given by Mr. Couch : 
 " The blue shark is migratory, and I have 
 never known it arrive on the coast of Cornwall 
 before the middle of June ; but afterwards it 
 becomes so abundant, that I have known eleven 
 taken in one boat, and nine in another in one 
 day. The injury they inflict on the fisherman 
 is great, as they hover about the boats, watch 
 the lines, which they sometimes cut asunder, 
 without any obvious motive, and pursue the 
 fish that are drawn up. This, indeed, often 
 leads to their own destruction ; but when their 
 teeth do not deliver them from their difficulty 
 they have a singular method of proceeding, 
 which is, by rolling the body round, so as to 
 twist the line about them throughout its whole 
 length, and sometimes this is done in such a 
 complicated manner, that I have known a 
 fisherman give up any attempt to unroll it as a 
 hopeless task. To the pilchard drift-net the 
 
THE PORBEAGLE SHARK. 181 
 
 shark is a still more dangerons enemy, and it 
 is common for it to pass in succession along the 
 whole length of the net, cutting out, as with 
 shears, the fish and the net that holds them, 
 and swallowing both together." 
 
 Other true sharks, as the porbeagle, (Lamna 
 cornubia,) and the Greenland shark, (Scymnus 
 borealisy) so well known to the Greenland 
 fishers as the deadly foe of the whale, are 
 sometimes also to be seen. The latter species 
 is extremely tenacious of life, and its ferocity 
 is dreadful ; it attacks the whale, rending out 
 with every snap large masses of the whale's 
 flesh, while the latter lashes the water with 
 agony or vain efforts to drive away his foe. 
 We may here observe a singular circumstance, 
 connected with the sharks of the temperate and 
 warmer latitudes, as the white shark and the 
 blue shark, that they are often seen attended 
 by two or more small fishes, called pilot-fishes, 
 (Naucrates ductor,) between which and them- 
 selves a singular friendship subsists ; they have 
 been known to interpose between their friend 
 and the baited hook, and running against his 
 muzzle turn him from it. On the other hand, 
 perhaps, where they see no danger, they will 
 direct him to the bait, and even cling to him 
 as he is hoisted up on deck. This singular 
 
182 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 fish will also attend upon vessels during their 
 course, and that for months together, a circum- 
 stance known to the ancients, who regarded it 
 a pilot to the doubtful navigator, and held it 
 sacred. This fish much resembles a mackerel, 
 and is transversely banded. It belongs to the 
 mackerel family. 
 
 We may now pass to the skates, or rays, of 
 which many species are natives of our coasts. 
 The singular depression of these fish, the wing- 
 like expansion of their side-fins, or pectorals, 
 their long and spiny tails, their peaked snout, 
 the position of the eyes and temporal orifices 
 on the top of the head, and of the mouth, 
 nostrils, and gills, orifices on the under surface, 
 render them at once distinct from all other 
 fishes. In theee skates, or rays, the internal 
 surface of both the upper and lower jaws are 
 covered with a close array of teeth, like a tes- 
 selated pavement ; in some species these teeth 
 are flat or rounded, to act as crushers ; in others, 
 they are sharp and conical ; and what is sin- 
 gular, the males of some species have the teeth 
 sharp, the females rounded or flat, and the 
 young of both sexes flat teeth. Few fish are 
 more voracious than these tenants of the muddy 
 or sandy bed of the sea 5 they feed on Crustacea 
 and shell-fish, crushing them with ease ; their 
 
THE SKATE. 183 
 
 movements are undulatory, or sliding, and 
 performed by flappings, more or less violent, of 
 their wing-like fins, the long slender tail being 
 lashed from side to side. The skates produce 
 their young in horny cases, much resembling 
 those of the dog-fish, but broader in propor- 
 tion, and with thicker and shorter filaments. 
 They breed in the spring and summer, and 
 are consequently in the best condition during 
 the winter, and the flaky flesh of various parts 
 is then very delicate. The females, of the skates, 
 or rays, of most common occurrence, are called 
 by the fishermen maids ; as the skate-maid, 
 the thornback-maid, etc. 
 
 Of the species most frequently met with, 
 Ave may notice the long-nosed skate, (Raia 
 chagrined,,) a large species, and at once distin- 
 guishable by its long, slender, tapering snout. 
 In the old males the teeth are very sharp, but 
 flat in the females. Besides this, there is the 
 true skate, (Raia batis,) also called the blue or 
 grey skate. In this species both sexes when 
 adult have sharp teeth. It is common on our 
 coast. 
 
 A species, termed the sharp-nosed ray, or 
 white skate, (JKaia oxyrhynchus^) is taken in 
 abundance, and great numbers are sold at 
 Plymouth to the French fishermen for their 
 
184 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 markets during Lent, as it is in high estima- 
 tion as an article of food. Its nose is not. so 
 much elongated as it is sharp and pointed. The 
 male has sharp teeth, and the skin of the upper 
 surface is spiny. 
 
 The homelyn, or spotted ray, (Eaia macu- 
 lata,) is another common species on our coast, 
 and is to be seen in considerable abundance in 
 the London markets. The upper surface is 
 variously spotted. 
 
 The thornback (Raia clavata) is also among 
 the most frequent species in our seas, and. is 
 taken in great numbers for the markets, where 
 the female is sold as the maid. This species, 
 like the rays in general, is in perfection in 
 winter, but is chiefly taken during the spring, 
 when it leaves the deep sea for the shallower 
 parts in order to deposit its roe. Its fins are 
 very ample, and the upper surface is studded 
 with recurved conical spines. The teeth of the 
 two sexes differ very decidedly. Like the rest ot 
 its tribe, this species preys on Crustacea, shelled 
 mollusks, soles, the sand -lance, and other 
 ground fish. Some other species of this group 
 are classed among British fishes, but they are 
 rare. 
 
 Among the cartilaginous fishes with fixed 
 gills are to be placed those eel-like slimy fishes, 
 
THE LAMPREY. ^ 185 
 
 termed lampreys and lamperns, which form a 
 distinct family (Petromyzidce.) These singular 
 creatures have the lips thick, flexible, and 
 adapted for forming a circular sucker con- 
 tinued around the mouth. The mouth is also 
 circular, and armed with hard tooth-like pro- 
 cesses ; it is usually concealed by the lips, 
 which cover it when not acting as a sucker. 
 On each side of the neck are seven branchial 
 orifices, opening into branchial cells. The 
 respiratory apparatus of the lamprey engaged 
 the attention of sir E. Home, whose observa- 
 tions were published in the Phil. Trans. 1815, 
 p. 257, etc. ; and it would appear that when the 
 lamprey clings to a stone, by means of its 
 sucking mouth, that the water is received in 
 through the orifices on one side, traverses the 
 internal apparatus, and is discharged from the 
 orifices of the opposite side, a regular succession 
 of currents being maintained.* The hinder 
 caudal portion of the body only is furnished 
 with a continuous fin above and below. 
 
 The lamprey, or sea lamprey, (Petromyzon 
 marinuSj) is widely spread in the seas of Europe 
 and America. It exists in the Mediterranean, 
 as well as in the colder latitudes, and is every- 
 
 * See professor Owen's remarks in the Catalogue of the 
 Mus. R. Coll. S. 
 
186 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 where migratory in its habits, ascending the 
 rivers in the spring or summer, according to 
 the advance of the warmer season in their 
 countries. Formerly great numbers worked 
 their way up the Thames to a considerable 
 distance, in order to deposit their roe, but few 
 are now taken. In the Severn, there is a pe- 
 riodical influx of these fishes in considerable 
 numbers, during the months of April and May, 
 and also in various rivers which open into the 
 sea, along our southern coast. Many of the 
 Scottish rivers are also visited, but not until 
 summer has set in. They remain in the fresh 
 water about two months, making furrows in 
 the bed, not by boring like the salmon, but by 
 fixing their sucker upon the stones, and re- 
 moving them from their places, and at this 
 work they assiduously labour. Into these 
 furrows the eggs are deposited, and covered up. 
 The progressive motion of the lamprey in the 
 water is undulatory, like that of an eel, but 
 from time to time it seeks to moor itself to any 
 fixed object that offers, and then darts again 
 onwards. With regard to its food, soft animal 
 substances, and even fish, constitute its nutri- 
 ment. It fixes on its prey like a leech, and 
 rasps away with its hard teeth till it deeply 
 penetrates. When full-grown, this species 
 
THE LAMPREY. 187 
 
 attains to the length of twenty-five or twenty- 
 six inches. 
 
 The lamprey has from early times been 
 regarded a delicacy for the table ; the potted 
 lampreys of Worcester are celebrated . Henry I. , 
 surnamed the Beauclerk, who, as Rapin says, 
 was exceedingly regular in his diet, and " never 
 known to be guilty of any excess in eating or 
 drinking," excepting on the occasion which 
 fatally terminated, brought on his illness, as it 
 is said, by partaking too immoderately of a 
 dish of lampreys, a fish of which he was very 
 fond. 
 
 The colour of the sea-lamprey is olive-brown, 
 marbled with a dark green and dusky brown. 
 
 There is a smaller species, termed the river 
 lamprey, or lampern, (Petromyzon fluviatilis,) 
 about twelve or fourteen inches in length, of a 
 bluish colour above, passing into white beneath, 
 which is a permanent resident in many of our 
 rivers, and those of Scotland and Ireland. 
 Formerly this fish was taken in enormous 
 quantities in the Thames, as many as one 
 million or twelve hundred thousand having 
 been captured in a single year. Numbers were 
 sold to the Dutch fishermen as bait; Mr. Yarrell 
 says, that four hundred thousand have been 
 sold in a single season, at the rate of forty 
 
188 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 shillings per thousand. At present, the lampern 
 is far less plentiful in the Thames than for- 
 merly. In the Severn, the Dee, the Mersey, 
 etc., it still abounds. 
 
 This species breeds in May, and is in the 
 best condition from October to March, during 
 which period only its fishing is permitted. 
 Cuvier states, that it is common in the fresh 
 waters of the continent. Like the sea-lamprey, 
 the lampern is in repute as a delicacy. 
 
 A distinct species of lampern, called the 
 fringe- lipped lampern, (Petromyzon planerij) is 
 occasionally to be met with in our rivers, and 
 more frequently in those of the continent. It 
 is as thick, but shorter than the preceding 
 species, and has its sucking lip peculiarly broad 
 and fringed. 
 
 In the Thames, and various other rivers, and 
 in the streams of the continent, is found a 
 species of lamprey, of very small size, being 
 only five or six inches long, and as thick as a 
 'goose-quill. It is called the pride, or sand-pride, 
 or mud-lamprey, and in French, lamprillon, 
 civelle, and ckatonille, (Ammoccetes branchiate ;) 
 its lip is not circular, but presents the form of 
 a horse-shoe, and does not appear to act as a 
 sucker ; its mouth is destitute of true teeth. 
 
 This little lamprey lives in the mud, and so 
 
THE MTXINE. 189 
 
 rarely emerges from its lurking-place that it is 
 not to be discovered without some search ; 
 Cuvier says, it has been accused of sucking the 
 gills of fishes, because it has, most probably, 
 been confounded with the Petr. planeri. He 
 adds, that it is employed as a bait for hooks. 
 It is for this purpose that the Cornish fishermen 
 use it ; it abounds in the smaller streams of 
 that county; in its habits it is very inactive. 
 
 Along the coasts of Europe, including that of 
 our own island, a singular slender fish, about 
 twelve inches long, is to be found, which Linnaeus 
 regarded as belonging to the class of worms. 
 It is, indeed, one of the lowest in structural orga- 
 nization among the fishes, its vertebral column 
 being merely a soft flexible tube ; it has no 
 eyes, its mouth is circular, with eight feelers or 
 barbules, and there is one hooked tooth on the 
 palate, and two rows of teeth are on each side of 
 th ft- tongue. Its skin, which is smooth, is most 
 copiously lubricated with a slimy gelatinous 
 secretion, poured out from two rows of glands, 
 extending along the under surface. The head 
 is blunt, with only one spiracle connected with 
 the interior of the mouth ; on each side of the 
 body is an orifice, whence proceeds a membra- 
 nous tube, leading to the respiratory apparatus 
 on its own side. This singular fish is called the 
 
190 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 
 
 myxine, or glutinous hag, (Gastrobranchus 
 ccecus.) It is a deadly foe to fish, into the 
 bodies of which it enters, in some way not well 
 understood, and devours the whole of the flesh. 
 Nilsson says, that several have been found in 
 the body of a single haddock, which was all 
 eaten away internally. The cod-fishers of Scar- 
 borough and Berwick often capture this fish in 
 the bodies of cod or haddock drawn up by their 
 lines, and some believe it enters their mouth 
 while they are held by the hook. But Cuvier 
 says, it attacks and pierces the fish ; aided, 
 perhaps, by the sense of touch implanted in its 
 feelers, it may have the power of suddenly 
 fixing itself by means of its hooked palatal 
 teeth, and then boring and rasping with its 
 lingual teeth, insinuate itself beneath the skin, 
 and gradually work its way into the very body 
 of its victim. Indeed, on some parts of our 
 eastern coast it is called the borer. *> 
 
 Here terminates our sketch of the fish and 
 fisheries of our British islands a sketch, indeed, 
 for our limited space will allow no more. Yet 
 we trust that the reader, desirous of some 
 general information on the subject, will not be 
 altogether disappointed. To those who wish to 
 make this portion of zoology a study, Mr. Yar- 
 rell's work on British Fishes is indispensable. 
 
CONCLUSION. 191 
 
 We ought not to conclude, however, without 
 a thankful recognition of that adorable Being 
 who made " the seas and all that is therein." 
 How true it is that " God is love ! " Every 
 examination of his works, as the Creator, 
 furnishes illustrations of this fact, and may 
 prepare us to acknowledge with gratitude that 
 pre-eminent exhibition of his kindness, which 
 he made in the gift of an Almighty Saviour. 
 " In this was manifested the love of God toward 
 us, because that God sent his only begotten 
 Son into the world, that we might live through 
 him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
 but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
 propitiation for our sins,' 1 1 John iv. 9, 10. 
 The same gracious disposition which was 
 evinced in this gift a gift which the apostasy 
 of our race had rendered necessary had been 
 previously displayed in the multiplication of 
 objects adapted to promote man's earthly hap- 
 piness. How wonderfully conducive to our 
 welfare are the qualities which the Creator has 
 imparted to the roaming tenants of the waters ! 
 The 'amount of nutritious food, agreeable to the 
 palate and diversified in flavour, some adapted 
 for the digestive powers of the robust, and some 
 for the delicate stomach of the invalid, derivable 
 from rivers, lakes, and seas, is incalculable ; 
 
192 CONCLUSION. 
 
 while the convenience of man is promoted by 
 the employment, in useful manufactures, of 
 kinds and parts of fish which are not suitable 
 for food. The contemplative mind may see in 
 all this man's obligations to the Creator and 
 Preserver of the universe. Alas, that we should 
 have rebelled against so much goodness ! 
 Alas, that any should be inattentive to the 
 message of reconciliation ! Is the reader one 
 who has hitherto preferred distance from God 
 to that communion with him which is to be 
 enjoyed through the mediation of his Son? 
 Let him hearken to the invitations of mercy, 
 and in the spirit of the repentant prodigal say, 
 " I will arise and go to my father." Let him 
 avail himself without delay of that benign 
 arrangement, by which the renewing influences 
 of the Holy Ghost are imparted to every 
 believer, and guilty outcasts are accepted, 
 through the righteousness of our Lord and 
 Saviour, in a way consistent with the integrity 
 of the Divine character and the supremacy of 
 the Divine law. 
 
 
 RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY : INSTITUTED 1799. 
 

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