94 FISH. 



so as to be sought after by the fishermen. The 

 scan fishing commences in August, and sometimes 

 continues to the end of the year. 



They feed with voracity on small crustaceous . 

 animals, and their stomachs have been found 

 crammed with thousands of a minute species of 

 shrimp, not larger than a flea. It is probably 

 when in search of some such food that fishermen 

 say they have seen them lying in myriads quietly 

 at the bottom, examining with their mouths the 

 sand and small stones in shallow water. The 

 pilchard has been known to swallow a hook baited 

 with a worm, and it is probable that they devour 

 the roes of fish. Vast quantities are taken with 

 drift nets similar to those used in the herring 

 fishery, and are shot at' distances from the land 

 varying from half a mile to five miles or more. 

 These fish are cured and sent to the Mediter- 

 ranean by thousands of barrels each year, forming 

 a very profitable branch of the fisheries of the 

 kingdom. Fine floating luggers are the sort of 

 boats used in this fishery ; they are usually from 

 ten to sixteen tons each.* 



* It was one of these same luggers which a year or two 

 since was navigated to Australia by the hardy fishermen, and 



