2 THE FISH OF DORSET. 



1896) been solved by Professor Grassi, who found breeding eels 

 thrown up by the currents in the Straits of Messina. 



Secondly, to say a few words as to their general habits, means 

 of capture, boats employed, &c. And now let me thank all those 

 who have so kindly lent me their aid, among whom I may mention 

 Mr. T. Groves, who got me a sight of the notes of the late Mr. W. 

 Thompson, of Weymouth ; Mr. Eustace Bankes, who kindly let me 

 examine his copy of the Purbcck Society's papers ; and our worthy 

 Secretary, who got me interviews with sundry fishermen, and has 

 helped me in various ways. Now, though all fish are more or less 

 migratory, the different species keep to different sorts of ground, so 

 that, by taking note of the nature of the sea bottom and the 

 surrounding coast, one can pretty well tell what fish one may 

 expect to catch in any particular locality. Thus one does not 

 expect to find soles on a bed of rocks, nor rock-frequenting fish on 

 smooth sand or mud. 



One sometimes catches other things besides fish en one's hook. 

 I have here a stone and two old gun flints, which were attached to 

 the base of an ascidian which came up on my hook one day in 

 1887 while fishing over the wreck of the Abergavenny off 

 Weymouth. She was lost in 1806, so that they had been a long 

 time under water. 



Now, if we take a map, or, better still, a chart of the Dorset 

 coast, we shall see how very varied the nature of it is. Our 

 eastern boundary line comes down to the sea in Bournemouth Bay, 

 where the bottom is mostly clean sand and the water shallow, 

 under ten fathoms, with one or two small patches of rock, and is, 

 therefore, good trawling ground. Here we may expect to get all 

 sorts of flat fish, with a few whiting, gurnard, and pout near the 

 rocks. Then we come to Poole Harbour, which is no doubt a great 

 nursery for small fish, where in the main channels we have sandy 

 and stony bottoms, where soles, plaice, dabs, and pout, and at 

 times small whiting, arc got, whereas in the latches between the 

 mud flats, flounders, eels, bass, and grey mullet are found, with 

 salmon and sea trout in the mouths of the rivers Fromc and 



