464 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec 



upset my creed by positively stating tliat there exists no sucli 

 "fish " as a whitebait, so called by Yarrell (Culjpea alba), who, 

 in writing about its habits, thus says : " The whitebait differs 

 materially from all the British species of Cliipea that visit our 

 shores or our rivers. From the beginning of April to the end of 

 September this fish may be caught in the Thames as high up as 

 Woolwich or Blackwell every flood tide in considerable quantity. 

 During the first three months of this period neither species of the 

 genus Cliipea, of any age or size, except occasionally a young 

 sprat, can be found and taken in the same situation by the same 

 means." But there are other writers of more recent times who 

 now maintain that the so-called whitebait is made up of the young 

 of other fish, while there are those again who say they are herring 

 fry. To satisfy my own mind upon this vexed question, I have 

 recently made expeditions in the boats employed in catching 

 whitebait for the market. When we reached the fishing-ground 

 the tide was ebbing fast, and the whitebait net was set. The net 

 employed is about twenty feet in length, gradually tapering from 

 the mouth to the small end, or " purse," which is not more than 

 three inches in diameter, and so fine in the mesh that a shrimp 

 cannot get through it. The mouth of the net — about four feet 

 wide — is nearly square, and ingeniously ' rigged ' to crossbeams of 

 timber that keep it extended to its full width. Whilst fishing, the 

 boat is anchored in the tideway, the net is lowered to a depth of 

 about four feet, and the purse then is drifted back astern of the 

 boat, and every living thing that enters at the net's mouth is 

 impounded in the purse. By the aid of a boat-hook the fisherman 

 hooks the purse into the boat, unties its end, and empties its 

 contents upon a kind of shelf erected for the purpose. This 

 process is repeated about every ten minutes so long as the fishing 

 continues. The proceeds of one haul will be sufficient for 

 description. First come the silvery little fish the fishers so 

 carefully select and designate ' bait,' and regarding the paternity 

 of which so much discrepancy of opinion exists. These fish 

 varied much in size, from six inches long to one-twelfth of an inch. 

 These very minute fish were evidently not long from out the egg. 

 It was only the small and intermediate sized fish that were 

 retained, the larger ones being again returned alive to the 

 Thames. Those picked out for sale are called 'smig-bait.' 

 Then we caught sprats, but it was very easy to distinguish them 

 from the ' bait,' sticklebacks, ' pole-wigs ' (so the fishermen call 



