GREA T BRITAIN. 289 



they keep near the bottom, and are frequently taken from 

 the stomachs of line-caught fish. Considerable assemblages 

 have been observed in February, becoming more abundant 

 in March ; but the chief fishery commences with drift-nets 

 in July and with seines in the succeeding month. During 

 the summer they may be met with from twenty to fifty 

 miles from the coast, as outside the Scilly Isles and a con- 

 siderable distance up St. George's Channel. In or about 

 August large schools of these fish extend from the Lizard 

 so far as Bolt Head in Devonshire, further to the eastwards 

 of which no very extensive fishery is carried on, although 

 considerable numbers are taken at Torbay, Teignmouth, 

 and Dawlish. Another large fishery in fact, a continuation 

 of that already referred to stretches from the Lizard to the 

 Land's End ; while a third is present on the north coast 

 of Cornwall, having its chief seat at St. Ives, where the 

 fishermen assert pilchards arrive in October and November, 

 about three days subsequent to their appearance at Kinsale, 

 in Ireland. Sometimes one of these districts is full of fish, 

 none being present in either of the others. Irrespective of 

 these larger migrations, there are lesser ones, influenced by 

 currents, tides, and searchings for food. They appear rarely 

 to go directly against a current. 



Many of the fishermen assert that the number of pil- 

 chards now captured in Cornwall is much less than used 

 to be the case. They point out numerous small landing- 

 stages, all of which in remote ages were used for dis- 

 embarking the fishermen's spoils, but have now fallen into 

 ruin or crumbled to decay, owing to there being no longer 

 any need for their services. It has been said that the 

 pilchards in some seasons swim low, due to diminished 

 temperature in the upper waters, or from some other cause, 

 and consequently escape beneath the nets. This reason 



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