A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Mr. Southwell writes, November 29th, 

 1876: 'A fine tunny was cast ashore at 

 Bacton on the 24th inst. It was in an 

 exhausted state, but not dead. Yesterday I 

 saw it in Norwich. It is a beautiful fish, 

 measuring 9 feet 4 inches in length ' {Zoologist, 

 1877). 



32. Blackfish. Centrolophus pompilus, Linn. 



' A living specimen was found cast up on 

 the beach at Sea Palling, after the severe 

 north-east gales, about March 27th, 1898 ; 

 seen by me shortly after.' — T. S. 



33. Ray's Bream. Brama rail, Bl. 

 'Generally found left by the tide after 



heavy weather.' — T. S.^ 



Mr. L'Estrange records one which was 

 picked up oflF Hunstanton on October 12th, 

 1892. It weighed 5 lb. 140Z., and measured 

 23^ inches. Another specimen was found 

 by Mr. Patterson near Yarmouth, November 

 23rd, 1894, of about the same length ; and a 

 third on October 29th, 1895. 



34. Opah. Lampris luna, Linn. 



' A magnificent specimen found on the 

 breakers (Yarmouth), November, 1828 ; 

 another, December 24th, 1823.' — Paget. 



Couch mentions another which was caught 

 on the Norfolk coast, near Hunstanton, in 

 1839 [British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 134). This 

 is most probably the same which is now in 

 the Wisbeach Museum. 



' A specimen obtained at Eccles, July 6th, 

 1844, is in the Norwich Museum ; weight, 

 4 or 5 stone.' — y. H. G. [Zoologist, p. 679). 



'One taken at Yarmouth, October 17th, 

 1891 ; length 38 inches; weight, 51 lb.' — 

 A. P. [Trans. Norf. and Nor. Nat. Soc, vol. v. 



P- 325)- 



' The Norfolk Remembrancer, under date 



April 30th, i8io, p. 113, says: "A very 

 rare and curious fish called the opah, or 

 king fish, found on Mundesley beach ! " ' — 

 T. S. 



35. Swordfish. Xiphias gladius, Linn. 



In August, 1865, a specimen measuring 

 from tip to tip 10 feet 2 inches was brought 

 to me by some Lynn fishermen, who had 

 found it stranded about four miles below 

 Lynn. There was no wound to account for 

 its death, and it had evidently been left by 

 the receding tide.^ My friend. Professor 



1 'Mr. Gurney mentions one taken at Yar- 

 mouth, and the Rev. E. Dowell another taken at 

 the same place.' — Zoologist, 1851, p. 3,058. 



* Swordfish: 'No. 52. Tetrarhynchus (larva); 

 53. Distoma clavotum ; 54. /Iscaris incurva. These 



Cobbold, who examined it with me, dis- 

 covered in it several species of Entozoa new 

 to science. In the stomach there were, 

 besides some small fish, the remains of a crab 

 and starfishes. Sir T. Browne mentions one 

 with a sword a yard and a half long, taken 

 by being entangled with herring-nets at Yar- 

 mouth. 



'On October 31st, 1861, a specimen 9 

 feet 6 inches, including the sword, which 

 measured 3 feet, was observed in shallow 

 water at Mundesley, and captured by a noose 

 being passed over its tail. The head is in 

 the Norwich Museum. I tasted its flesh and 

 found it very palatable.' — y. H. G. 



The sword of one found in the Wash is 

 now in the Wisbeach Museum. 



' A swordfish, taken at Hunstanton in 

 1 86 1, is now preserved in the collection at 

 Hunstanton Hall.'— r. 5. 



In the Lynn Advertiser, Jnly 1 8th, 1879, 

 there is a notice of one caught in a mackerel 

 net at Sherringham by Matthew Scotter. It 

 measured 9 feet 6 inches. Mr. Southwell 

 mentions another of the same size, which was 

 stranded on the beach at Palling, October 

 30th, 1881 ; one was taken off Wolferton 

 Creek, October 30th, 1883, which measured 

 5 feet 3 inches, and the sword 3 feet 2 

 inches ; and one at Burnham Overy, Novem- 

 ber 13th, 1882, which measured 10 feet long 

 and weighed 400 lb. 



36. Deal-fish. Trachypterus arcticus, Brtinn. 

 The first Norfolk specimen of this rare and 



singular fish was seen at Cole's, naturalist, 

 Norwich, by Mr. Southwell, from whom I 

 received the following note of its capture : 

 ' It was taken in a drift-net by the Butterjiy, 

 Wells, W. J. Hardman, October 8th, 1879. 

 It measures 53 inches long, 10 inches deep; 

 thickness about i inch. After being pur- 

 chased by Mr. T. J. Mann, of Bishop's 

 Stortford, and exhibited at the Norwich 

 Fisheries Exhibition, it was presented by that 

 gentleman to the Norwich Museum, where it 

 now is.' Mr. Southwell's interesting account 

 of this fish is published in the Transactions of 

 the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society. 



37. Greater Weever. Trachinus draco, Liinn. 

 Norfolk Estuary. — R. E. 



Yarmouth. — Paget. 



Occasionally on the Norfolk coast. — 



y. H. G. 



parasites were obtained at Lynn by Dr. John Lowe 

 and myself when dissecting a Xiphias gladius cap- 

 tured off the Norfolk coast in 1865.' — The late 

 Prof. T. S. Cobbold (International Fisheries Exhibi- 

 tion). 



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