112 APRIL. 



Do you see the remarkable projection of the .lower 

 jaws ? With that sort of spade the little silvery fish 

 manages to scoop out a bed for itself very quickly in 

 the wet sand, and so lie hid. It is numerous enough in 

 these bays, and it is in request among fishermen, who 

 use it largely as bait, and who, to obtain it, cast a seine, 

 and enclose vast multitudes, which are thus dragged up 

 on the beach high and dry. 



A short time ago I saw a paragraph in the Times, 

 from some Jersey correspondent, who complained of the 

 recent scarcity of fish, and accounted for it by the follow- 

 ing curious catenation of links. A number of sharks had 

 recently appeared in the offing, which frightened away 

 the shoals of porpesses, which ordinarily came to feed 

 on the fishes, which fed on the Sand-launce. Now 

 when the porpesses were there the fishes were driven 

 with the Launce into the shallows, and were readily 

 taken ; but, on being relieved of these persecutors by the 

 intruding sharks, were free to retire to the deeper water, 

 where the fishers could less easily entrap them. The 

 writer stated, however, that at length the sharks had 

 departed, the porpesses had returned, the fishes were 

 consequently driven in shore, and were again devour- 

 ing the Launce. The whole account has something 

 of the "House that Jack built" twang, and I do 



