396 MODERN SEA FISHING 



digestion must be rapid, for while those opened immediately 

 on being caught contained the young herring, in those car- 

 ried home was found nothing but digested food. Inside the 

 herring fry taken from the smelts were small shrimps ! The 

 gastric juice of the smelt would seem to be extremely 

 acrid, for after making these investigations the observer wiped 

 his hands on his handkerchief and then thoughtlessly used 

 it to blow his nose, which caused his nostrils and lips to 

 become inflamed, and his tongue to swell in an extraordinary 

 manner. 



Smelts are easily reared in fresh water. Colonel Meynell, 

 of Yarm in Yorkshire, kept some for four years in a pond into 

 which no sea water flowed. A similar experiment was tried 

 with equal success in the lake at Roselherne Manor, Knutsford, 

 Cheshire. 



The ATHERINE, unlike the true smelt, is scarce on the East 

 coast and abundant on our southern shores. It has a little 

 family all to itself, named by Dr. Giinther Atherinidtz. It is 

 a widely distributed little fish, but is not common in Scotland ; 

 and though, as I have said, rare on the East coast, is, I am 

 assured by a careful observer, very abundant in Lowestoft 

 Harbour. Great quantities are found in some of the Irish bays 

 and harbours. 



These little fish have some quaint local names. In the 

 north of Ireland they are Portaferry chickens, pincher being 

 another Irishism having the same meaning. Sand smelt is, 

 perhaps, the most common name ; they are also called silver- 

 sides and, in Cornwall, quid. The atherine does not, like the 

 true smelt, push up far into fresh water, not going, as a rule, 

 beyond the flow of the tides. It spawns during the summer 

 close to the shore. Probably the greater portion of the shoals 

 retire into deep water in the winter. With regard to fishing 

 for smelts on the surface, in midwater, and at the bottom, I have 



