ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 197 



uncommon for a boat, with five men, to bring on 

 shore from five hundred- weight to two tons of this 

 fish, all taken in the course of a single night. It is 

 taken by lines, and the bait most successful is a 

 small fish. The flesh is not held in much esteem, 

 except by the lower classes, who make a virtue of 

 necessity, but this is probably in a great measure 

 owing to the unprepossessing appearance of the fish 

 itself. It is sometimes dried, and large quantities 

 are said to have been exported to Spain and other 

 .catholic countries. When dried in a particular man- 

 ner, the flesh used formerly to be ground or grated 

 to powder, and in this state was employed to thicken 

 soup. 



The sand-eel, Ammodytes tobianus, and the sand- 

 launce, A. lancea, which are both very abundant on 

 our sandy shores, are objects of great importance to 

 the fishermen, as furnishing a bait much in request 

 for taking many of the larger fishes. From their 

 habit of burrowing in the sand, they can easily be 

 procured at low- water by means of a rake of a pe-. 

 culiar construction. We have seen the strong sickles 

 with teeth, that are used for cutting sea-weed, 

 employed with great success in scratching up sand- 

 eels, which are also caught, according to Montagu, 

 in nets with remarkably small meshes, when a shoal 

 is discovered at sea, and seven bushels have been 

 taken at a single haul. Though of such small size, 

 yet they are very delicate eating, and vast numbers 

 are consumed in summer by the natives of the 

 Hebrides 



