SPINACID^E. 317 



entirely destroyed. In fact, often a part of the night had to be entirely given up 

 to these creatures, and the work of catching fish suspended. At one time it was 

 feared that the fishery would have to be abandoned by the entire fleet for the season. 

 While some boats did leave the fishery grounds as the consequence, and have not 

 returned to it since. Last autumn these dogs were bad in their attacks on the 

 fish and nets, but this year they seem to exceed everything known of them before. 

 These creatines are very obnoxious to all the fisheries. Of late the herring fisheries 

 of the other parts of the kingdom have been suffering from them. These picked- 

 dogs have peculiar habits, and are nob shy and fearful, like many other fishes, but 

 by day or night will go anywhere and will attack anything for food, and I believe 

 would congregate in millions around large quantities of fishy matter. Mr. Barber, 

 writing from Mevagissey in the Field, Jan. 12th, 1884, observing upon the unsuc- 

 cessful take of pilchards although there had never been larger shoals off the coast 

 within living memory ; continued, but the picked-dog surrounded them in untold 

 numbers, destroying the fishermen's nets to an alarming extent, and the fishing 

 had to a great extent to be abandoned. Only about 12,000 hogsheads of pilchards 

 were secured during the season, about 4000 of which were taken at St. Ives. 

 About ten years since (1875) they took possession of Mevagissey Bay for two 

 months, during which period herring fishing had to be entirely suspended. Some 

 fishermen at this period captured them with hook and line for manure, and 

 Mr. Dunn has seen two men fill a boat in this manner in three hours. 



In the Manchester Aquarium this fish was found to knock its head at night- 

 time against the rockwork of the tank until it lays the nasal cartilages bare : but 

 placing a small light, enabling it to see and avoid the rocks, was found an 

 effectual preventive remedy (Saville Kent). 



When the mother has been killed the young have been observed swimming 

 round her body, even so long as six hours, instead of going off. 



Low observes that when caught it writhes itself across the fishermen's 

 hands, often, if they are not attentive, wounding them very severely, which, if it 

 happens in a part near a joint, is always dangerous and difficult to heal: the 

 parts swell and become red and fiery endangering gangrene. As a consequence 

 the fishermen always fear to be thus wounded, and when the fish is hooked and 

 brought up they commonly rap it on the head. 



Lowe (Fauna of Norfolk) is of opinion that the accounts of how these fish 

 inflict wounds with sagacity are imaginary. It is a very voracious form, and 

 feeds on other fish which it hunts in companies. 



Means of capture. Baited hooks, but care has to be taken that the line is 

 properly secured against being bitten through. W. Sinclair, writing from 

 Drumbey, Donegal (Field, November 5th, 1881), observes that "for the last 

 two months line-fishing has been an impossibility owing to the swarms of dog- 

 fishes which are in such numbers that no other fish can get near a bait." " I had 

 on two No. 9 hooks tied on gimp, and the bait was sprats : at the end of fifty 

 minutes one of my hooks was carried away, so we counted the spoil and found 

 we had forty-five fish, average weight 3 lb. each." The Squalus aca?ithias, which 

 in former times was in great abundance along the whole coast of Sw r eden from 

 Gothenburg, afforded lucrative employment to the fishermen during the whole 

 of the summer from the Naze to the North Cape, in the fjords, as well as 

 along the coast. It is caught in various ways. About Midsummer it is observed 

 to swim near the surface, and can be taken in nets as well as with lines, 

 precaution being taken to protect the line by proper serving for a short distance 

 beyond the hook, to prevent it being bitten off. This fish is eaten sometimes 

 fresh, but skinned before being cooked. It is, however, mostly smoked, and in 

 this way it is considered rather a delicacy. It is also dried and split like stock- 

 fish for consumption in the country, as well as for export to various parts of 

 Sweden, where it is generally appreciated. The yolk of the egg, which is about 

 the size of a pigeon's egg, is used by the inhabitants as a substitute for other eggs 

 in the domestic economy. 



Breeding. Through summer and autumn, or, as Mr. Dunn believes, in every 

 month of the year. Thompson opened one captured December 28th, 1838, at 

 Carrickfergus. It contained eight eggs of a roundish-oval form, from 1^ to 



