52 SEA FISH ; 



entrails and offal as can be conveniently managed, and 

 a good-sized stone, to sink and keep it steady. Let it 

 go to the bottom, and then draw it up, about three feet, 

 when secure it by making fast the line. This attracts 

 pouting, and many other varieties of fish, to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the boat. The bream spawns late in the 

 autumn. 



The Wrasse, or Rock Fish. 



FAM., Labridoe. 



This fish is far more remarkable for the variety and 

 beauty of its colours and markings, than for its value 

 as an article of food, as it is but, at best, a soft, watery, 

 insipid fish. It is occasionally fished expressly for, but 

 far more frequently taken when in pursuit of other 

 kinds of fish, particularly when angling for basse or 

 pollack off high rocks in deep water. It is, as its 

 name implies, an inhabitant of rocky places, and those 

 deep cavernous clefts through which the tide flows 

 are its favourite places of resort ; as the mollusks and 

 small Crustacea, on which it mainly feeds, are generally 

 abundant in such situations. The wrasse may be 

 taken with the rod and line by fishing in such places 

 as described, where, by cautious approach, the fish 

 may often be distinguished in search of food, pushing 

 their noses into clefts and bunches ' of weed in search 

 of shrimp or small crabs. A bait, such as a piece of 

 scollop, razor fish, boiled limpet, mussel, or a small 



