Essex. 54-3 



while to employ the same ingenious operator to extend the 

 collection by the addition of other interesting specimens pre- 

 pared in the same exquisite style. Apologising for the length 

 of this notice, which has far exceeded my original intention, 

 I remain, yours, — Viator. From the King's Highway, Sept, 

 20. 1831. 



Lathrcta Squamdria L., Dentdria hulbifera L., and other 

 Parities, are to be met with about Tunbridge Wells. The 

 Dentaria bulbifera is very abundant there. — Wm. Christy^ 

 jim. May, 1832. 



ESSEX. 



Dagcnham Breach. — Sir, A great fondness for angling has 

 led me to many celebrated places for practising the art, round 

 the metropolis ; and there is none frequented by the " lovers 

 of the angle," as old Izaak quaintly calls the fraternity, of a 

 more interesting character, as respects its natural history, than 

 Dagenham Breach, near Barking, in Essex. It is well known 

 that this fine piece of water was occasioned by a disruption of 

 the banks of the Thames, in the year 1705 or 1708; an in- 

 teresting account of which is given by Derham, in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions for one of those years. Although scarcely 

 sensible to the taste, the water contains a considerable quantity 

 of muriate of soda, or common salt ; in many places it is ex- 

 tremely deep, and abounds with fish. Among those most 

 commonly caught are pike (£^sox Zucius L.), perch (Perca 

 fluviatilis i.), bream (Cyprinus Brdma L.), roach (Cyprinus 

 rutilus L.), rud (Cyprinus OWfus L.), and not so frequently 

 carp (Cyprinus Carpio L,.). Eels (Murae'na^nguilla L.) are 

 also taken in considerable quantities. These fish, I am aware, 

 are all sufficiently common in most large pieces of water; but 

 there is one which, the keeper assured me, is caught there, in 

 small numbers, every year, in the nets, that pleased and sur- 

 prised me to hear of, the anchovy (Clupea Encrasicolus i>.). 

 He said they usually caught about a dozen every year. Never 

 having heard of this fish being found in fresh, or nearly fresh, 

 water before, although Pennant, in his British Zoology, says 

 they are taken in the estuary of the Dee, I am disposed to 

 think that the keeper has mistaken some other fish for the 

 anchovy ; but what other, it is difficult to guess. Being curious 

 to know if the anchovy is found in any freshwater lakes or 

 rivers, I beg an answer from some of your ichthyological 

 readers. 



Sea. Fish in Dagenham Breach. Some years since, Mr. 

 Fry, the present proprietor of Dagenham Breach, made an 

 attempt to stock it with sea-fish, and some hundreds of small 



