Useful Fishes Mixed with Whitebait. 93 



sides match well with the glittering "bait." They also are ex- 

 cellent food product, which the cuisiniere converts into almost 

 as tasty morsels as the sand-eels. 



(6) Fisheries Extant. Both the Sea-Lamprey and the Lam- 

 pern are caught in the whitebait nets. The first quite 

 exceptionally and then more often of good size. Altogether 

 not many of them are taken by the "baiters" downstream, and 

 only the very smallest ever get into the box, for their move- 

 ment attracts attention. One specimen, 9 inches long, we took 

 out of a box in April. The men regard the lamperns as good 

 omen of whitebait being about. The Common Eel as a rule does 

 not much trouble the "baiter," for whether small or a little larger 

 they usually manage to wriggle through the meshes of the nets, 

 as more often does the lampern. They are particularly reten- 

 tive of life. An odd silver eel, even 6 inches long and over, we 

 have seen in the boxes during the spring-time, but with no regu- 

 larity. Much larger river eels besides congers at intervals are 

 captured in the stow-net. The former the fishermen prize for 

 home consumption, the latter they are not so fond of. 



Small-sized Bass are rather a numerous fish close to the 

 precincts of favourite spots for whitebaiting near Southend 

 Pier. It is said they are not infrequently seen in a haul, and 

 some possibly may escape the men's eye and get sent off; though, 

 usually, being an active hardy fish, they get pitched overboard, 

 and dash off none the worse for capture. Not many, surely, 

 can get to market, since we can recall only one example, 3 

 inches long, picked up by us out of a box. Some of the " baiters " 

 assure us that, now and again in the Shoebury neighbourhood, 

 they have found young Mullet in their drag-net. We doubted 

 their identification, for previously young bass had been brought to 

 us by shrimpers believed by them to be mullet. However, from 

 the " baiter's " description of the fish, their shoaling and habit 

 of leaping over the net, &c., we must accept the statement of 

 their being mullet which after all is not unlikely. We our- 

 selves have never seen specimens of those thus caught, nor 

 found any whatsoever in the boxes forwarded to market. 



