136 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 



very capricious. Tons' weight of sprats are 

 often taken, and in some districts are used for 

 manuring the land, and immense quantities are 

 sent fresh to the London market, as they are in 

 request with all classes. At Lowestoft and 

 Yarmouth, thousands are cured and dried in 

 the same manner as herrings. They are sold 

 by the dozen, or in bundles of one thousand 

 each, tied up with twisted straw, and sometimes 

 in small barrels. 



Sprats are often caught by means of drift- 

 nets, made of fine twine, with small meshes, 

 but more frequently by means of stow-boat 

 nets, like large bag-nets, the mouth of which, 

 twenty-two feet wide and thirty-six feet high, 

 is kept square by means of beams and a heavy 

 anchor, at a proper distance under the boat. 

 The net is so moored that the tide carries 

 everything into it. On raising the net, the 

 beams which keep the mouth open are brought 

 together in such a manner as to close it, thus 

 securing the shoal within. 



Formerly, many naturalists were disposed to 

 regard the sprat as the young of the herring or 

 the pilchard, but their opinion is now proved to 

 be erroneous. Besides many variations in the 

 position of the fins, one characteristic of the 

 sprat consists in the serration of the abdominal 



