6.6 Whiting, Size and Numbers. 



market fish, many a foot long and upwards. He took them to 

 Chatham, where they met ready sale. 



The largest-sized whiting we have heard of is said to have 

 been 16 inches, which was taken many years ago by a sprat ter, 

 northwards of the Oaze. The more usual size got is from 6 to 

 8 or 9 inches. Yet fish 4 inches long are not uncommon, and 

 when out with the trawlers we have measured a few only 3 

 inches in length. A dozen whitings bought from out a basket- 

 ful on 16th November, taken up at random, ranged from 8| up 

 to 12 inches long, the average of the lot being 10 inches. In 

 years gone by, the whitings caught formed part of the Leigh 

 fisher-families' ordinary diet, rather than a marketable product. 

 Now-a-days they have commenced selling them to the fish- 

 mongers and hawkers, as well as disposing of them at Chatham 

 and Sheerness ; at times, an item of income worthy of con- 

 sideration. Such as we have seen exposed for sale have all 

 exceeded 7 inches in length. 



The following occurrence is thus narrated in Buckland's 

 Appendix II. to his and Walpole's Sea Fisheries Report, 1879. 

 "At the end of October, 1867, immense numbers of young 

 whiting suddenly appeared in the Thames, and it was estimated 

 that nearly 20,000 bushels of them were caught and used for 

 manure ; they measured from 2 to 5 inches long. A conviction 

 was obtained against the defendants, at Dartlord, under the 

 Thames bye-laws. These fish were probably driven in by 

 the great frost which occurred at that time." The Leigh fisher- 

 men well remember the extraordinary glut of these fish, dubbed 

 " Fenians " by them. They came about October, and they were 

 still found nearly all the winter, disappearing in the spring. 

 The fishermen are of opinion they were not true whiting, neither 

 haddocks, nor codling, but " a different, species by themselves " 

 {sic). According to their description, they had blunter noses 

 (" bull-dog fish ") than the whiting, and they never were found 

 to have grown larger than the above dimensions of Buckland. 

 They say that ever since 1867 there have always been some of 

 them about all the year round. Indeed it is averred that num.- 



