FISH rOUXD WITH WHITEBAIT. 



283 



and minute lierring is not easily explained unless with 

 fresh specimens to hand for illustration. The young 

 sprats will keep much longer than the young herrings. 

 The herrings break, that is, they burst open much 

 sooner than the sprat. 



The " Eooshians " which come into the river about 

 May are the young of the weever fish ; they have little 

 colouring and are very jelly like. They are called 

 Eooshians because they were caught in great abund- 

 ance in the river in the time of the Eussian war. 



In the spring of the year a great many sticklebacks 

 are caught ; they are generally of a beautifal silver 

 colour, and sometimes "golden sticklebacks" are taken. 

 Among the whitebait many small shrimps are also 

 taken ; some of these are buntings or brown shrimps, 

 some are red shrimps. The red shrimp "carries a 

 sword in his head " and boils almost the colour of a 

 praw^n ; the bunting does not carry a sword, and boils 

 brown. 



The young of the spotted goby are also found amongst 

 whitebait, and are called " polwigs ; " and various kinds 

 of minute fish, just hatched out, are caught, which are 

 difiicult to identify, and are called " heads and eyes." 



The pollutions of the Thames have a great effect upon 

 the progress of the w^hitebait up the river. A witness 

 at Gravesend informed us that whitebait used to be 

 caught at Blackwall, but that they have dropped gra- 

 dually from Blackwall to Woolwich, from Woolwich to 

 Erith, from Erith to Grays, from Grays to Gravesend, 

 and from Gravesend to Southend. They are now prin- 

 cipally caught in the Lower Hope and the Medway. 



The warmer the season the better the whitebait. The 

 little fish are surface swimmers and swim high in warm 

 weather, lower in cold weather. 



