314 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly Nov. 



Portland, haddock of a large and somewhat coarse size were 

 principally taken. Cod and plaice were scarce. Halibut 

 were not numerous, but much more so than later on in Faxe 

 Bay. The last-named varied curiously in size, ranging from 

 little fellows, no bigger than a small plaice, to monsters of 

 ten stone or more in weight. One caught in the first few 

 days of our fishing measured 6 feet from nose to tail 

 (Mr Pycraft gives 20 feet as the " record "), with pro- 

 portionate breadth and thickness. The larger halibut were 

 noticeable for being "lousy," as the fishermen termed it, — 

 infested, that is, with numerous moving parasites of a semi- 

 transparent appearance. These four species, with an 

 occasional strong-jawed blenny of the sea-cat variety (" cat- 

 fish " the fishermen called them) — destined after submitting 

 with a peculiarly ill grace to having its guts torn out, and 

 being skinned on the pontoon at Grimsby, to appear on the 

 retailer's slab as ling, — comprised the profitable part of the 

 catch. 



But the bag introduced us to many another sea-dweller : 

 coal-fish, large, handsome, and frequent, but coarse and 

 useless for the market ; ling, welcome but occasional visitor ; 

 skate, with now and then an ugly monk-fish, eagerly pounced 

 upon by the deck hands for the sake of his huge liver ; and 

 here and there a lump-sucker, or a dog-fish. The last- 

 named were usually of the "spur-dog" variety, their dorsal 

 fins armed with ugly spines, wherewith the creature, by a 

 sudden twisting and doubling of its body, is able to inflict a 

 nasty gash upon the hand that incautiously grasps it by the 

 tail. A specimen of the "smooth-hound" which exhibited 

 certain indications to the fisherman's experienced eye was 

 cut open for my especial benefit, and some half-dozen embryo 

 dog-fish — alive, wriggling, and almost perfect in form, save 

 for a bladder-like attachment, not unlike the yolk of an ^^g, 

 from which they were presumably deriving nourishment — 

 disclosed. 



For two glorious days (the climate of Iceland during the 

 brief summer, which was then just commencing, is the true 

 elixir of life) we lay fishing off Portland. But cod, which, 

 being split and salted, and not like the other fish merely 

 gutted and packed in ice, improves with keeping, and is 



