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SAND EELS. 



By W. MARK PYBUS. 



In the summer, about 25 years ago, I was on the Fairy Rocks 

 at Newbiggin with some of my children. My son and some of 

 the other bo}^ visitors there were fishing, but their efforts had not 

 been attended with any success. The tide was high. So far as 

 I remember the hooks were baited with herring. A shoal of 

 sprats appeared, and many of them leaped out of the sea on to 

 the rocks. The bait on the hooks was changed for sprats, 

 and in a few minutes a number of large Blackjack or Coalsaithe, 

 some 3 feet long, were caught by the boys. The caves under the 

 Fairy Rocks were a wriggling mass of Blackjack. Returning to 

 Newbiggin, we saw that on the sands at the back of the Ship 

 Inn, boys were fishing with cords attached to sticks, and wading 

 in the sea to the depth of about one foot and a half. They were 

 catching large eels almost as quickly as they could take them off 

 the hooks. In the evening towards dark I walked along the 

 sands. At every step I took there were phosphorescent flashes 

 of light. I took home with me a handful of sand where it had 

 appeared most luminous, and on a careful examination of it I 

 found many fish scales, such as apparently might come from 

 sprats or herrings. 



About two summers later I was again on the sands at New- 

 biggin. The sun was very powerful, and the sand was heated to 

 excess. In a moment I saw Sand Eels spring out of the sand 

 and die. At a rough estimate I should think a dozen carts could 

 have been filled with Sand Eels from a space of about 100 square 

 yards. 



Yesterday, Sunday, 7th July, 1912, I was on the Carr Rocks 

 at Warkworth with a visitor I had. There was a fog at sea. 

 The morning was not particularly cold, but the temperature was 

 certainly lower than usual in July. My son-in-law, who was 

 staying in Alnmouth, came along to the rocks to bathe. He told 



