A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



**9i. Allis Shad. Clupea alosa, Linn. 



Not abundant. According to Paget not un- 

 common with the herrings at Yarmouth. Two 

 specimens recorded by Gurney as taken at 

 Lowestoft in May 1840, a male of 3^ lb. and a 

 female of 4J lb. 



**92. Twaite Shad. Clupta finta^Cm. 



Not uncommon at Yarmouth according to 

 Paget. A specimen over 2 lb. in weight was 

 caught with hook and line at Lowestoft in June 

 1867 (Lowe). 



APODES 

 **93. Eel. Anguilla vulgaris, Turton, 



Common in the rivers and estuaries. A quo- 

 tation by Day in his British Fishes states that 

 Mr. Gurney used to find sharp-nosed eels along 

 the coast at Lowestoft, sometimes nearly a mile 

 from the harbour mouth. These were doubtless 

 males, in which the snout is narrower and sharper 

 than in the females. Both sexes however may 

 be taken in the sea, since all eels migrate to the 

 sea in order to spawn. It has now been proved 

 that the spawning of the eel takes place and the 

 young are hatched in the open Atlantic to the 

 west and south of the British Isles, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the 500 fathom line. The larvae are 

 ribbon shaped and perfectly transparent, and were 



formerly known as a species of Leptocephalus under 

 the name L. hrevirostris. The identification of 

 this species as the larva of the eel was made by 

 Grassi and Calandruccio at Catania in Sicily in 

 1893, and in 1905 specimens of this larva were 

 taken in considerable numbers ofiF the entrance 

 to the English Channel, just beyond the 500- 

 fathom line, by the Danish naturalist Johannes 

 Schmidt on the Danish investigation steamer 

 Thor. The spawning eels were not obtained, 

 but the presence of the larvae shows that the 

 spawning takes place not far off; the larvae were 

 not taken at the bottom, but within about 50 

 fathoms of the surface. Thus all the eels which 

 live in fresh waters in England or elsewhere in 

 north-western Europe are originally hatched in 

 the open Atlantic and migrate thence to the 

 rivers. Eels spawn only once in their lives; 

 those which descend to the sea never return, but 

 die after shedding their eggs and milt. 



94. Conger. Conger vulgaris, Cuv. 



Not uncommon at Yarmouth according to 

 Paget. In October 1895 I saw four specimens 

 landed at Lowestoft by a trawler which had 

 been fishing in the deep water off the town. 

 The larva of the Conger is Leptocephalus morrisi, 

 which has occasionally been taken in shallow 

 water, but there is no doubt that spawning takes 

 place in deep water. Like the eel the conger 

 spawns only once in its life. All the large 

 specimens taken are females, the males never 

 exceeding 2 ft. 6 in. in length. 



GANOIDS 



•*95. Sturgeon. Acipemer sturio, Linn. 



Dr. John Lowe mentions a specimen taken off 

 the Suffolk coast which was 12 ft. 2 in. long and 

 weighed only 156 lb. In Mr. Hele's little book 

 on Aldeburgh he writes ' Mr. G. T. Rope of Blax- 

 hall,Tunstall, has furnished the following interest- 

 ing particulars concerning the capture of a sturgeon 

 many years ago. The incident is well remem- 

 bered by his father, now (1870) in his 90th year. 

 The fish was taken in the river Aide at Rendham, 

 according to Mr. Rope senior between the years 

 1836 and 1840. The capture occurred on the 

 property of the grandfather of the Rev. E. N. 

 Bloomfield of Guestling Rectory near Hastings, 



and that gentleman in a letter to Mr. Rope gives 

 the following account of the event : — " There had 

 been a flood, but the water had gone down, so 

 that the sturgeon was left in a hole of the river 

 and could not get away. A boy who had been 

 sent from the Grove, Glenham, where my grand- 

 father lived, to the farm at Rendham, saw as he 

 supposed a pig in the river. He therefore told them 

 at the farm what he had seen. The head man at 

 once went with a halter to pull the pig out and 

 so captured the sturgeon. It was a very fine one 

 and was exhibited at Saxmundham. I think the 

 sturgeon must have been taken some time before 

 1835."* 



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