206 THE C0ALFI8H. 



enemy to the fishermen has not been seen for many years. It would seem, 

 in fact, during the present drave at Dunbar, to have taken the place of the 

 Dogfish, one of the worst annoyances to fishermen, when pursuing their calling, 

 at this season; nor does it appear, by the change, to l^ave in the least degree 

 mitigated the evil. One morning when we visited the shore, we were particularly 

 surprised at the numbers which had been caught on the previous night. 

 Almost every boat, and there could not bo fewer than two hundred, had 

 landed a number; and a considerable part of the quay and adjoining beach 

 was occupied by the variovis crews employed in cleaning them. They were 

 prepared in the same way as Cod and Ling, by being split up, salted, and 

 dried; but, though in tolerable demand amongst curers, the food is generally 

 esteemed coarse, being chiefly made use of by the poorer classes. The speci- 

 mens measured from two to three feet in length; but notwithstanding their 

 bulk, they must have been a poor recompense to their industrious captors. 

 What had become of their usual enemy the Dogfish? It had disappeared 

 altogether, though in former years it had regularly appeared in shoals at the 

 commencement of the fishing — a well-known nuisance, pursuing and devouring 

 the Herrings with uncommon rapacity; besides cotnmitting serious damage on 

 the nets. But its substitute was not a whit better liked, and with good 

 reason; their property being destroyed, and the Herrings devoured just as 

 before. The stomachs of most of them contained recently swallowed Herrings; 

 some of them so many as five or six large ones. We were somewhat amused 

 to see a number of little ragged urchins picki)ig up these and carefully washing 

 them in the sea, with a view to find them a market. They were afterwards, 

 we discovered, vended in the streets at a penny a dozen; and in spite of their 

 late burial and restoration, they appeared to meet with a ready sale. 



All the Coalfishes we saw were not captured alike: they were caught in 

 two ways — entangled in the nets, and by baited fishing-lines put out by the 

 fishermen as an amusement in the interval between setting and drawing their 

 nets. Before being lifted into the boat they were knocked on the head with 

 a handspike; and those which had seized the bait, had made so eager a bite 

 that their bodies were mutilated ere the hook could be recovered. 



Eapacity, such as we have spoken of, on the part of the Coalfish, is more 

 like the habit of a true IMcrlucius, or Hake, which is very destructive to small 

 fishes. The one is easily distinguished from the other by the position and 

 number of the dorsal fins; and by other characteristics which may be learned 

 on consulting any work on Ichthyology. Coalfishes, when young especially, 

 vary considerably in colour — from a light grey to a deep green, which in 

 adult specimens is sometimes retained, but more frequently changed to a deep 

 black. When about a foot in length, they aiford good diversion to the 

 angler by freely taking a baited hook, or springing at an artificial fly however 

 rudely formed. We have caught scores of them in an evening by using a 

 small gooso feather fastened to a hook without any care, and trolling with 

 it from the stern of a boat in motion. From piers and jutting rocks, numbers 



