ANCHOVIES IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 337 



asking me to send him some specimens of anchovies in order that 

 he might ascei'tain whether the fish called by the local fishermen 

 '^ Caplin/^ and caught together with sprats, were of that species. I 

 sent him specimens, and he found that the so-called Caplin were 

 anchovies. 



On January 21st Professor Cossar Ewart, in a letter in the Times, 

 stated that at the end of the previous December anchovies were 

 abundant in the Moray Firth off Troup Head, on the east coast of 

 Scotland, and had been caught in considerable numbers in the 

 herring" nets of the Buckie fishermen. 



It is evident from these facts that anchovies were during last 

 winter present in large numbers off the south coast of England, from 

 Dover to Mevagissey, and apart from the question whether they 

 could be taken in marketable quantities by the use of nets not now 

 actually in use, it is a fact that they have been taken in marketable 

 quantities at various places by means of nets regularly used every 

 winter for the capture of sprats. The question, therefore, presents 

 itself, why should these anchovies have been wasted while large 

 numbers of imported anchovies are sold in this country at high 

 prices ? For these anchovies were practically wasted. When mixed 

 with sprats at Torquay they are usually sold with them at the 

 ordinary price of sprats, and the buyers object to them because 

 they cause the sprats to " turn off.^^ At Dover they were either 

 thrown away or sold with the sprats unsorted. The average 

 price paid to the fishermen for sprats at Torquay is 45. a bushel. 

 Anchovies may not be so plentiful every winter as they were last 

 winter, but even if they only occurred at all once in five years or so, 

 they might nevertheless be used in the proper manner instead of 

 being sold as sprats. For anchovies when properly preserved are a 

 valuable delicacy and always fetch a high price. In order to try 

 to create a mai-ket for English anchovies I Avrote a letter to the 

 Times, which was published about January 10th, asking the importers 

 of foreign anchovies into England whether any of them would be 

 willing to purchase English anchovies. But I did not receive a 

 single answer. I then wrote to Messrs. Burgess and Son, the 

 Strand, London, who supply the English market with the most 

 esteemed anchovies and anchovy preparations. They replied that 

 if I sent them some English anchovies they would report upon them. 

 Accordingly I sent them a few of the fish from Torquay on January 

 30th, and they reported that such fish would be perfectly useless to 

 them for any of their manufactures. I then called at the warehouse 

 and found that the firm imported all their anchovies from Gorgona 

 preserved in brine, and that they had not found the size and flavour 

 of the Torquay anchovies equal to those of the Gorgona fish. 



