l86 THE HAKif. 



ges ; the tali is not forked, but each ray being equally 

 produced, terminates in the fame ftraight line. 



The hake is found in abundance on manj of our coafts j 

 particularly thofe of Ireland , where there was formerly 

 a Hated filhery on the Nymph Bank off Waterford; im- 

 menfe quantities were caught there at the two feafons of 

 their periodical appearance, June and September, when 

 Hx men with liooks and lines frequently killed a thou- 

 fand filli in one night ; the produce of this fifhery was 

 falted up and exported to B'llboa in Spain ; it has, how- 

 ever, been for many years upon the decline, owing to the 

 filh deferting their wonted ftation *. 



This dereli£Vion of their accuftomed haunts, is not pe- 

 culiar to the fifhes of this fpecies ; the haddock has in 

 the fame manner abandoned the coafts of Watei-ford, and 

 the herrings and the balking Iharks have difplayed the 

 fame caprice, in relinquifning their ftations on feveral 

 parts of the Britijlj ftiores.. Naturalifls have not yet giv- 

 en any plaufible account of this irregularity in the mi- 

 gration of fiihes : In fome inftances it may be occafioned 

 by the elofe purfuit of an unufual number of predatory 

 fifh, to avoid whofe voracity they may be driven upon 

 fliores that they were formerly unaccuftomed to frequent; 

 a deficiency of the fmaller fifh, that fupplied them, may, 

 in other inftances, have forced them to abandon a refidence, 

 where they could no longer be fupported * But the per- 

 nicious cuftom of trawling, is perhaps the moft common 

 caufe of their ?,bandoning the ufual ftations, becaufe, by 

 that means, not only a great part of their fpawn is demo- 

 liflied, which was lodged in the fand, but the worms and 



infe£ts 



» Smith's Hift. of Watcrfard, p. a6x = 



