96 Shad ; Sprats and Herrings form true Whitebait. 



descends in the spring months. At the upward migratory 

 period (as in its allies of the salmon tribe) there is a danger of 

 capture. Undoubtedly large ripish and moderately-sized ones, 

 5 to 7 or 8 inches long, drive into the stow-net in scattered 

 manner at intervals. But then, there is this anomaly, that 

 smelt fishing by the Thames Conservancy's Bye Law, No. 21, 

 is sanctioned, and indeed exclusively carried on, when the smelts 

 are full of ripening, and ripe spawn and milt. The maburer 

 their condition, so is delicacy in proportion, and one has only to 

 examine the fish legally sent to market and exposed for sale in 

 the shops about Christmas, and after, to get unanswerable 

 proof of this. If the "baiters" down stream then get a paltry 

 share, while smelters are hard at work swooping in netful s, it 

 clearly shows the former's minor captures are a very unimportant 

 factor in the problem of smelt decimation at the breeding 

 season. Moreover, the younger stages that are taken in the 

 drag-net are, after all, very moderate in numbers, for with mis- 

 givings thereon we closely examined into this aspect of the 

 question. We have found them from If to 3| inches long, in 

 the net and boxes, and enjoyed young smelts dished up with 

 the whitebait. 



The Shad is not nearly so valuable a food-fish as the smelt. 

 Its river ascent is spring, its descent autumn, and as a rule it 

 spawns well up in the fresh water. The shad's migrations 

 usually concur with the use of the drag-net ; there we mostly look 

 for them, seldom in stow-net. Large shads turn up quite 

 irregularly below Leigh, but not in quantity. Very few of the 

 young have been observed by us among the whitebait. We 

 have no evidence or reason to think that estuarine whitebaiting 

 impairs the up-river shad fishery. 



Sprats and Herrings ( = " Yawlings") Comingtotheseweget 

 at the root of the matter. Their admixture in various proportions 

 and sizes assuredly constitute the merchants' whitebait of the 

 present markets. Other marine forms are manifest, but play 

 such an unimportant role as has justified naturalists in confining 

 inquiries to the sprat and herring view. 



