BASS, GREY MULLET, GURNARD AND TURBOT 1051 



BASS. 



not like Salmon, for the purpose of laying 

 their eggs in the gravel beds, but merely 

 in pursuit of sand-eels and other food. 

 In the Arun they wander for miles, as 

 far, in fact, as the tidal limit, for they are 

 caught above Arundel, amid scenes more 

 suggestive of the haunts of Roach and 

 Bream. They also love to play at the 

 surface round rocky headlands, to rout 

 in the fine gravel off sloping beaches, 

 and to hunt for small shrimps and fishes 

 among the wooden piles of piers and 

 quays. They are not always very keen- 

 sighted, and I have seen hundreds rushing 

 up the river at Barmouth, passing by 

 great swarms of unseen sand-eels playing 

 about in the water less than a hundred 

 yards away. 



The Bass is a fish of warm seas, reaching 

 its greatest perfection in the eastern 

 Mediterranean. As far as our own coasts 

 are concerned, it is abundant only in the 

 south. North of the Thames and Bristol 

 Cliannel, it is never plentiful, and in 

 Scotch waters it is a rarity. 



The Grey Mullet is a fish of very 

 different habits — no dashing robber like 



the Bass, but a peaceful vegetarian delight- 

 ing in weedy backwaters and regularly 

 repairing year after year to piers or 

 harbours where it can reckon on waste 

 peas, potatoes and other soft food. This 

 is why the jetty at Margate is such a 

 favourite spot for its capture, for it 

 regularly frequents the sea under the 

 restaurant all through the summer, and 

 very fine specimens are caught by resident 

 anglers who have studied the conditions. 

 The Grey Mullet, though essentially a sea- 

 fish, can exist in brackish water, but it 

 lays its eggs in the sea only. It grows to 

 a weight of ten or twelve pounds, and is a 

 nervous fish of slow movements when un- 

 disturbed, though quick to escape danger 

 and a determined tighter when hooked. 

 It has some extraordinary habits, of which 

 the fishermen are not slow to take ad- 

 vantage with a view to its capture. Thus, 

 it will not pass under a shadow, and the 

 Turks catch it by spreading mats on the 

 surface of the water on moonlight nights 

 antl drawing these gradually to land. 

 The shoal is first seen and matting, 

 perhaps a hundred yards long, is spread 



