WHITEBAIT. 129 



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

 feet below the surface of the water ; and, except an occa- 

 sional straggling fish, the only small fry taken with the 

 Whitebait are the various species of Sticklebacks, and the 

 very common Spotted or Freckled Goby, described in vol. i. 

 page 258 ; neither of which are of sufficient value or import- 

 ance to require protection.* The farther the fishermen go 

 down towards the mouth of the river, the sooner they begin 

 to catch Whitebait after the flood-tide has commenced. 

 When fishing as high as Woolwich, the tide must have 

 flowed from three to four hours, and the water become sen- 

 sibly brackish to the taste, before the Whitebait will be 

 found to make their appearance. They return down the 

 river with the first of the ebb-tide ; and various attempts to 

 preserve them in well-boats in pure fresh water have uni- 

 formly failed. 



The Hamble, which runs into the Southampton Water, 

 is the only other river from which I have received White- 

 bait. But this I believe to be owing rather to the want of 

 a particular mode of fishing by which so small a fish can 

 be taken so near the surface, than to the absence of the fish 

 itself ; which, abounding as it does in the Thames, I have 

 very little doubt might be caught in some of the neighbour- 

 ing rivers on our south and east coasts. 



The Thames fishermen who live at and below Gravesend 

 know the Whitebait perfectly, and catch them occasionally 

 of considerable size in the small-meshed nets used in the 

 Tipper and Lower Hope for taking shrimps, called trinker- 

 nets, which are like Whitebait nets, only larger ; but these 



* The fifteenth printed rule and order of the Lord Mayor and his Court is, 

 that "no person shall take at any time of the year any sort of fish usually 

 called Whitebait, upon pain to forfeit and pay five pounds for every such 

 offence ; it appearing to this court that under pretence of taking Whitebait the 

 small fry of various species offish are destroyed." Page 11. 



