THE CLUPEA HARENGIS. 245 



on by numbers of the dog-fish about the nets, it occasions a white shining 

 appearance on the surface of the sea, accompanied with smoothness, as if 

 a quantity of oil had been strewed on it, emitting a rank oleaginous smell, 

 which may be detected at some distance. 



An idea may be formed of the numbers of the dog-fish about this chan- 

 nel, when it is stated, that, in the latter end of October, in the year 1827, 

 some fishermen proceeded to a small sand-bank, situated about four miles 

 to the east of Hastings, and two miles from land, in quest of cod-fish, and 

 for this purpose shot lines, to which four thousand hooks were attached, 

 over the ground. These, at the expiration of half an hour, were examined, 

 when with very^few exceptions a. dog-fish was secured by every hook. A 

 large cod had also been caught at the same time, but only the strong carti- 

 lages and bones of the head, with part of the vertebra?, remained, the rest 

 having been swept away by the dog-fish : this was probably the work of 

 only a few minutes after its capture. But their rapacity did not extend to 

 their own species, the whole of which were hauled in uninjured. These 

 insatiable fish are assisted in their ravages by the sepise, or cuttle-fish, 

 which, with their hard mouths, resembling parrots' bills, cut up 'the 

 mackerel and herrings with great adroitness. The sepiae are sometimes 

 attacked by the dog-fish, which they are generally enabled to frustrate 

 by ejecting a liquid resembling ink, which renders the water turbid and 

 obnoxious, and affords them an opportunity of making their escape. 



The mackerel first met with off Hastings generally commence about 

 the month of March, come from the German Ocean, to which they are 

 supposed to belong, and appear to be of a different species from those 

 caught off Mountsbav, in Cornwall; the latter being longer, with the edges 

 of the pectoral fins of a pink colour, and not so thick in proportion to the 

 former, which are of a less weight, with the edges of the pectoral fins of 

 a blue colour, and are considered of a superior quality. 



The mackerel appear off Mountsbay alwavs earlier than those off 

 Hastings, and come from the Atlantic, remaining about a month or five 

 weeks off Mountsbay, during which some decked fishing-boats from Folk- 

 stone, near Dover, proceed thither, and continue until the fish have dis- 

 appeared. After an interval of a month, mackerel corresponding in eveiy 

 respect with those from the Atlantic appear off Hastings, by which it has 

 been inferred that, after they have disappeared off Mountsbay, they take 

 a south-easterly direction until they approach the coast of France, when 

 they proceed to the east or north-east. 



But the French fishing-boats, whose range of fishing-ground is very 

 extensive, having never in the interval alluded to met with the Atlantic 

 mackerel, which, before they make their appearance off this station, are in- 

 variably met with off Yarmouth and the North Foreland, this circumstance 

 appears sufficiently conclusive that these fish proceed north about. The 



