138 LESSER LAUNCE. 



they are an attractive prey to the hungry rovers of the sea, 

 who here and there make a plunge into the midst of them, 

 to the momentary terror of the little host. They are scattered 

 for a time, but they gather closely together again, only, how 

 ever, to be broken in upon by another and another plunge, 

 until at last they find their safety by piercing into the soft 

 sand of the bottom, beneath which the pointed process at the 

 extremity of the under jaw enables them to bury themselves, 

 and in which they lie concealed without injury to themselves, 

 even when the tide has ebbed and left their hiding place 

 uncovered. But it is not only that this fish is able to find 

 its way to shelter in such a remarkable situation; they are 

 able also to move about within it with ease and some degree 

 of quickness; for the better accomplishing of which there 

 appears to be at the root of the tail a special organization, of 

 which the blood vessels are visible, and something corresponding 

 to which exists in all fishes which possess the power of 

 penetrating into the sand or of covering themselves with it. 

 It is in this retreat, concealed and sheltered with the sand of 

 the shore, that this Launce sheds its roe; and this it does 

 as it holds a tortuous course, the grains being scattered as it 

 passes on: and in the west of the kingdom at least this 

 process is accomplished at about the shortest days of the year. 

 It often happens, however, that their hiding place is broken 

 in upon by worse enemies than the prowling natives of the 

 deep; and people who value them as a delicacy resort to their 

 retreat with hooks or rakes, and thus draw them up to light. 

 I have been informed by those who have been accustomed 

 to this practice, that if the Launce be touched with the hook 

 on the posterior part of its body, it will move away through 

 the sand with such celerity as scarcely to be again overtaken; 

 so that it requires some skill to succeed in what might appear 

 so easy an employment as raking these fishes out of the 

 concealment of the sand. 



In some places the Lesser Launce is a favourite bait with 

 fishermen; from some of whom I learn further, that when 

 Mackarel are discovered to be in pursuit of the Larger or 

 Wide-mouthed Launce, a less successful fishery is expected; 

 but when these lesser fishes are the object of their rapacity, 

 the fishery shews itself much more profitable. 



