456 MODERN SEA FISHING 



on the fish of the Saint's finger and thumb. But, like the 

 haddock, of which the same story has been related, dories are 

 not found in the Lake of Genesareth. 



When a dory is seen cruising round a fishing boat, there is 

 no better plan of capturing it than to pay out an unleaded 

 line, baited with a small live fish. Couch tells a story of 

 having caught with his hand a dory so gorged with food that it 

 could not save itself by flight. He found within it twenty- 

 five flounders, some of which were two and a half inches long, 

 three father lashers not to be confounded with the shark of 

 that name and five small beach stones. 



Being a fish eater, it will of course take slow-moving whiff- 

 ing baits which represent small fish, but a live bait is un- 

 doubtedly better. Chad, the young of the sea bream, should 

 be tried when available. Care should be taken when handling 

 dories, for they are armed with spines close to the dorsal and 

 anal fins with which very nasty and sometimes even dangerous 

 wounds are occasioned. Of the excellence of the John Dory 

 on the table I need say nothing. One high authority ranks it 

 next after the turbot, but I would certainly give it the first 

 place. Sometimes it is boiled in sea water ; in Italy spring 

 water and wine are used. Small ones are occasionally baked, 

 being well basted with butter ; but this method is, I think, 

 a mistake. One of the largest dories caught of late years 

 was mentioned in 'Land and Water,' August 1879, as having 

 been sold at Norwich. It weighed fourteen pounds. Couch 

 records one of eighteen pounds. 



The ANGLER or MONKFISH. A book on sea fishing hardly 

 seems complete without some mention of the remarkably ugly, 

 voracious and nasty-looking creature termed by ichthyologists 

 Lophius piscatorius, which consists mainly of an enormous head 

 with a wide gaping mouth. Behind the head is a body of no 

 consequence and a little tail. From the top of its head pro- 



