334 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



" They look nice like young congers," I remarked, " or 

 gurnards pulled out ; but why not dogs ? " 

 " That wouldn't do ! " he replied knowingly. 

 But he had the day previously, under pretence of intro- 

 ducing a new fish for the fish-merchants, sold several at two- 

 pence each (a penny a foot !) and left some on trial, to be 

 paid for on the morrow. One or two did not want more ; 

 but some liked them so well that they paid up and asked for 

 others. 



One cunning old man of the sea whose wife had experi- 

 mented at noon-time, enjoyed her fish, and cooked one for 

 his tea refused to eat it ; he knew it, and didn't want hydro- 

 phobia ! And the woman herself appealed to me to say if 

 she was like to suffer any ill-effects ! But a neighbour's 

 children overheard the suggestion of hydrophobia, and were 

 frightened when it was explained to them by some one that 

 it was " a thing that made them bark like a dog ! " and 

 the poor children had to be appeased with a dose of liquorice 

 powder as an antidote before they could be persuaded to 

 sleep that night. 



I have every reason to believe that for some time past local 

 purveyors of fried fish have sold dog-fishes on the quiet, as 

 they did the wolf-fish (Anarrhichas lupus) long before they 

 dared to acknowledge it. And the clamour " for more " at- 

 tending the sale of the dogs above mentioned, which were 

 piked dogs, the ugliest of all the species and of most evil 

 repute, argues well for a more extensive use of it as food, as 

 well as its admittedly more toothsome cousins, the " husses," 

 or spotted dog-fishes. Those who have partaken of these 

 dogs describe the flavour as resembling that of the " docks," 

 the body-portion of various skates. 



