238 BPEAT8, WHITEBAIT, AND SARDINES. 



is now generally admitted to be a distinct species. This fisli 

 €omes into season in November, and continues so all the 

 winter months, during which the sale, especially in London, 

 is immense. About five hundred boats are annually em- 

 ployed in the sprat fishery. So great is the abundance 

 sometimes, that thousands of tons are sold to farmers for 

 manure. Most fish are caught on dark and foggy nights. 



The Whitebait, little fishes from three to six inches in 

 length, the delicious flavor of which the reader may have 

 often enjoyed, are caught by means of bag-nets, sunk four 

 or five feet below the water. They are very abundant in 

 many parts of the British coasts, particularh' in the estuary 

 of the Thames in spring and summer, when they arrive in 

 shoals to deposit their spawn. For several months they 

 continue to ascend the river with the flood tide, and descend 

 with the ebb tide, not being able to live in fresh water. It 

 was formerly supposed that this fish was the young of the 

 shad, or sprat, but is now regarded as a distinct species. 



The Sardine, a fish of the same genus with the herring 

 and pilchard, smaller than the latter, abounds in the Medi- 

 terranean, and is found also in the Atlantic Ocean. The 

 sardines of the west coast of France, which are largely im- 

 ported into other countries, are generally young sprats, and 

 sometimes young herrings. This "sardine" fishery is a 

 great business in France, and especially at Concarneau, 

 where as many as thirteen thousand men aid in the fishery. 

 This is conducted in a way remarkable for the extravagance 

 it involves. The sprat fisheries on the British coast — in- 

 deed, all other net fisheries — are carried on in the most 

 primitive way; but the French have made it a "bait" fisli- 

 ery, and use the roe of the cod, which is brought at a con- 

 siderable expense from tlie North seas for the purpose. The 

 fish are gutted, beheaded, sorted' into sizes, and washed in 

 sea-water, then dried on nets or willows; they are then 

 placed in a pan, kept over a furnace, and filled with boiling 



