DRIFT-NET FISHING. 133 



The periodical appearance of immense shoals of 

 sprats in our bays and estuaries during winter is 

 another instance of a great movement towards the 

 land, but not obviously for spawning purposes. Cold 

 weather drives many of our fishes into deep water, but 

 in this case the habit appears to be reversed ; for 

 although young sj^rats are also abundant on many 

 parts of the coast during summer, and particularly so 

 in some of our southern harbours, the old ones are 

 rarely numerous inshore except in winter. 



There has been some doubt as to the regular spawn- 

 ing time of this fish, and it is still unknown whether the 

 jjrocess takes place at the surface of the water or on the 

 ground — in deep or shallow water. Some information 

 has been gained, however, about the time of spawning ; 

 and so far as it goes it points to there being two 

 seasons, as in the case of the herring and pilchard. 

 YarrelP mentions having taken them full of roe on the 

 Dorsetshire coast in June; and Couch ^ speaks of the 

 spawning season being in summer, and probably late in ^ 

 autumn also ; but neither of those authorities appeared 

 to have been aware of the abundant evidence there is 

 of a regular winter spawning on some parts of the 

 coast. It is stated by the fishermen in Torbay that the 

 sprats are full of roe in November and December — the 

 time at which large captures are made there by means 

 of the sean. Farther eastward the sprat fishiug is 

 worked on a much larger scale than on the Devonshire 

 coast, and we have very precise information about the 

 condition of the fish taken there. The season for sprat 

 fishing by the stow-net lasts from early in November to 

 some time in February ; and in the Solent the fish are 



1 Brit. Fishes, vol. ii., 2nd edition, p. 198. 

 ^ Fishes Brit. Islands, vol. iv., p. 110. 



