<.'HAP. iv.] DIFFERENT KINDS OF SEA FISH. 155 



likely be the first question put by those who are unacquainted 

 with sea-angling. I answer, anything and everything in the 

 shape of fish or sea-monster, from a sprat to a whale. This is 

 literally true. It is not an unfrequent occurrence for tourists in 

 Orkney, or other places in Scotland, to assist at a whale-battue ; 

 and some of my readers may remember a very graphic descrip- 

 tion of an Orcadian whale-hunt, given in Blackwood's 

 Magazine a few years ago, by the late Professor Aytoun, who 

 was Sheriff and Admiral of Orkney. The kind of sea-fish, 

 however, that are most frequently taken by the angler, both 

 on the coasts of England and Scotland, are the whiting, the 

 common cod, the beautiful poor or power cod, and the mack- 

 erel ; there is also the abundant coal-fish, or sea-salmon as 

 I call it, from its handsome shape. This fish is taken in amaz- 

 ing quantities, and in all its stages of growth. It is known by 

 various names, such as sillock, piltock, cudden, poddly, etc. ; 

 indeed most of our fishes have different names in different 

 localities ; but I shall keep to the proper name so as to avoid 

 mistakes. The merest children are able, by means of the 

 roughest machinery, to catch any quantity of young coal-fish ; 

 they can be taken in our harbours, and at the sea-end of our 

 piers and landing-places. The whiting is also very plentiful, 

 so far as angling is concerned, as indeed are most of the Gadidae. 

 It feeds voraciously, and will seize upon anything in the shape 

 of bait; several full-grown pilchards have been more than 

 once taken from the stomach of a four-pound fish. Whiting 

 can be caught at all periods of the year, but it is of course 

 most plentiful in the breeding season, when it approaches the 

 shores for the purpose of depositing its spawn that is in 

 January and February. The common cod-fish is found on all 

 parts of our coast, and the sea-anglers, if they hit on a good 

 locality and this can be rendered a certainty are sure to 

 make a very heavy basket. 



The pollack, or, as it is called in Scotland lythe, also affords 



