316 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



offals ; the merchant finds the gain of com- 

 mission, and honest commerce ; the fisherman a 

 comfortable subsistence from his toil. " Ships," 

 says Dr Borlase, " are often freighted hither 



stream-net or nets, or any other nets of that sort or 

 kind, unless it be at the distance of one league and a half 

 at least from the respective shores." 



The number of boats at present engaged in this 

 fishery is about 1000, giving employment to 3500 men 

 at sea, and upwards of 5000 men, women, and children, 

 on shore. 



The White-bait (Clupea alba,} which is found so 

 plentifully in the Thames, and is so well known in the 



neighbourhood of London, as a delicate and well-flavoured 

 fish, was supposed by naturalists to be the young of the 

 shad, until Mr Yarrell, in the Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory, proved it to be a distinct species. In many respects 

 it diilers materially from all the other British species of 

 Clnpea, not only in specific characters, but also in its 

 habits, and is one as distinctly marked as any of its con- 

 geners. From the beginning of April to the end of 

 September, this fish, according to Mr Yarrell, may be 

 caught in the Thames as high up as Woolwich or Black- 

 wall, every flood tide, in considerable quantity; while 

 during the first three months of this period, neither spe- 

 cies of the genus Clupea of any age or size, except 

 occasionally a young sprat, can be found. About the 

 end of March, or early in April, white-bait begin to 

 make their appearance in the Thames, and remain till 

 the end of September, when they are no longer to be 

 found in the river. In the months of June, July, 

 and August, provided the weather be fine, immense 

 quantities are consumed by visitors to Greenwich and 

 Blackwall, where epicures of all orders assemble for a 

 white-bait feast. The fishery for these fish is continued 

 in the Thames frequently so late as September, and 

 specimens of young fish of the year, from four to five 

 inches long, are then not uncommon, but mixed, even 

 at this late period of the season, with others of very 

 small size, as if the roe had continued to be deposited 

 throughout the summer. 



The white-bait (says Dr Parnell, in a communication 

 in the first volume of the Magazine of Zoology and 

 Botany, to which we are indebted for the present ac- 

 count) is not, as it was formerly considered to be, pe- 

 culiar to the Thames, as I have found it to inhabit the 

 Frith of Forth in considerable numbers during the sum- 

 mer months. From the beginning of July to the end of 

 September they are found in great abundance in the 

 neighbourhood of Queensferry, and opposite Hopetoun 

 House, where I captured on one dip of a small net, of 

 about a foot and a half square, between two and three 

 hundred fish, the greater part of which were white-bait 

 of small size, not more than two inches in length: the 

 remainder were sprats, young herring, and fiy of other 

 fish. In their habits they appear to be similar to the 

 young of the herring, always keeping in shoals, and 

 occasionally swimming near the surface of the water, 

 where they often fall a prey to aquatic birds. 



I have no doubt (continues Dr Parnell) that the white- 

 bait will be found to exist in the Frith of Forth* through- 

 out the whole of the year in considerable quantity, and 

 that the fishermen would find it a new source of income, 

 equal or superior to the spirling fishery, did they use 



* The white-bait has also been observed by Dr Parnell in 

 abundance iu the Suhvay Frith. 



with salt, and into foreign countries with the 

 fish, carrying off at the same time a part of 

 our tin. The usual produce of the number 

 of hogsheads exported for ten years, from 1747 



the mode of fishing for white-bait that is practised in the 

 Thames. But in consequence of the large extent 

 of the estuary, and of no means being used exclusively 

 for the capture of these fish, we can form but a faint 

 idea of the number that may there exist. 



The white-bait net which is used in the Thames is 

 not large; the mouth of it measures only about three 

 feet across, but the mesh of the hoes, or bag-end of the 

 net, is very small. A boat is moored in the tide-way, 

 where the water is from twenty to thirty feet deep ; and 

 the net with its wooden frame is fixed to the side of the 

 boat. The tail of the hose, swimming loose, is from 

 time to time brought into the boat, the end untied, and 

 its contents shaken out. The wooden frame forming 

 the mouth of the net does not dip more than four feet 

 below the surface of the water. 



The largest specimen of Clupea alba that I have met 

 with, taken from the Frith of Forth, measures five 

 inches in length. The upper part of the back, from the 

 nape to the tail, is of a pale greenish ash-colour, the 

 sides, gill covers, pectoral, ventral, and anal fins, of a 

 beautiful pure white; the dorsal and caudal fins straw 

 colour, minutely spotted with dark brown. The head 

 on the summit in young specimens is marked with a 

 large brown spot, which is divided anteriorly by a white 

 line. Each orbit on the superior margin is tinged with 

 black, as well as the posterior inferior margin, but in a 

 less degree. The shape of the body resembles that cf 

 the young herring, but it is more compressed and of a 

 deeper form. 



The first ray of the dorsal fin commences exactly 

 midway between the point of the upper jaw and the end 

 of the middle caudal ray; the ventral fins are placed 

 behind the third ray of the dorsal; the tail is deeply 

 forked, the middle ray being not quite half the length cf 

 the longest ray of the same fin. 



The head, in a specimen five inches long, is not 

 quite one-fourth the length of the whole fish. In a fish 

 four inches long, the head is exactly one-fourth the entire 

 length. In one two inches long, the head measures more 

 than one-fourth the whole length. Each jaw on the 

 anterior part is furnished with a few small slender teeth, 

 about six in number, placed in one row ; which are 

 more perceptible on the lower than on the upper jaw; 

 on the roof of the mouth as well as on the tongue, are 

 placed three or more rows of teeth, which can be easily . 

 felt by the assistance of the point of a needle. In this 

 respect my observations differ from those of Mr Yarrell, 

 who says, the tongue of the white-bait has an elevated 

 central ridge without teeth; but it is probable that that 

 author did not examine a dried specimen, for until in 

 tliat state, it is almost impossible to perceive the teeth, 

 in consequence of their extreme minuteness. This is 

 a most important character, and at once removes it from 

 the shad, which has the tongue and roof of the mouth 

 destitute of teeth. 



The white-bait, four inches long, differs from the 

 herring, sprat, and pilchard of the same length, in the 

 following characters : 



The herring has the dorsal fin half-way between the 

 point of the upper jaw and end of the long caudal rays ; 

 with the head nearly one-fifth the entire length. The 

 white-bait has the dorsal fin much nearer the tip of the 

 tail, than to the point of the upper jaw, with the head 

 one-fourtli the length of the whole fish ; the body is more 

 compressed, of a much lighter colour, and the belly much 

 rougher under the pectorals, than is observed in the 

 herring. 



The sprat has tho origin of the ventral fins situated 



