306 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



taken in shrimp -nets proves that it occasionally wanders 

 into shallow waters. 



Altogether the inferences to be drawn from the fork- 

 beard's appearances are interesting, to say the least of them ; 

 and without putting " two and two " together to make 

 "four," its habits might be left in doubt altogether. 



There is much yet to be learnt of the comings and goings 

 of many fishes. 



SOLES NUMEROUS 



The sole appears to come into the roadstead fairly regularly 

 in June and July. A more than usual quantity of fair-sized 

 fish were met with in 1906. A dozen of my shrimper friends 

 at the latter part of June substituted small trawls for their 

 ordinary shrimp-dredges, and made remunerative hauls. I 

 saw fifty-six pairs of soles, some of them fine ones, in a 

 shrimp shop on July 5th, the combined catch of two boats 

 using 1 6 ft. beam trawls. Some of these fishers " fish hard " ; 

 they crowd on all sail, and throw out a " drag " a sail held 

 by a pole and four guy-ropes which the tide fills like a huge 

 bag, pulling the boat along from below in addition to the 

 sails above. 



The soles, so far as I can ascertain, inshore for lugworms 

 and take the Nereides freely, although showing little or no 

 food in their stomachs when dissected. Most of the shrimpers 

 who retain their dredges meet with a few soles. "Lucky 

 Bob," who occasionally trawls on Breydon, assured me that 

 he took there, on July 4th, no less than thirty-two pairs of 

 soles. His largest fish measured 22 in. ; Jary, the watcher, 

 recorded one 18 in. long. 



* * * * * * 



SHOALS OF GREY MULLET 



The movements of the grey mullet, if the statements of 

 old Breydoners may be relied on, were at one time well 

 ordered and exceedingly regular, while the capture of this 

 fish was a remunerative part of the men's employment. 1 



1 Vide Notes of an East Coast Naturalist , pp. 191-3 ; and Nature in Eastern 

 Norfolk, pp. 284-5. 



