742 MR. F. DAY ON THE FISHES [Dec. 2, 



7. On the Fishes of Weston-super-Mare. 

 By F. Day, F.Z.S. 



[Eeceived November 18, 1879.] 

 (Plates LXI. & LXII.) 



Having visited Weston-super-Mare in July this year, and re- 

 mained there throughout most of August, I directed my attention 

 to the sea-fishes of that place, which, situated on the estuary of the 

 Severn and the Wye as it enters the British Channel, is a locality 

 too well known to call for any description : for the same reason I 

 have deemed it unnecessary to allude to the remarkably high 

 spring tides which occur. The amount of fishing going "on was 

 inconsiderable, boating apparently being a more profitable occupa- 

 tion. The shrimpers were daily at work ; while stakes in narrow 

 passes permitted the erection of stationary nets, into which small 

 fishes and Crustacea were swept by an ebbing tide. Here I obtained 

 most of my specimens ; but the place so swarms with crabs (Carci- 

 nus manas, Linn.), that numerous little fishes were found partially de- 

 voured when the tide had ebbed sufficiently to permit the nets being 

 examined. During the end of the first week in August, enclosures 

 of a semicircular form were erected on the sands for the purpose of 

 capturing flat fish (Pleuronectids). The one that appeared to be 

 most successful was about 200 yards in length, the stakes raised to 

 about three feet above the ground ; and to these a long net was 

 affixed. 



I daily went to the stake- and shrimp-nets, as well as to the en- 

 closures on the sands already referred to. 



In drawing up this paper I took as my groundwork Mr. W. 

 Baker's (of Bridgewater) 'Fishes of Somersetshire,' 1 including 

 Mr. Higgins's 2 Remarks upon the Fishes of Weston-super-Mare, 

 which he collected between the end of June and November 27, 

 1860. I likewise examined the specimens in the Taunton Museum 

 and the more extensive collection in that of Weston 3 . 



The fishermen complained that the season had been an unprece- 

 dently bad one, but that at times fishes had appeared most unex- 

 pectedly. This they could not account for, nor even propose any 

 solution. Later on (September) large numbers of Soles were found to 

 be present in the Channel, which had not been suspected ; and many 

 that were taken weighed as much as four pounds each. 



Reports from various sources lead one to the conclusion that 



1 Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1851. 

 3 'Zoologist,' 1861. 



3 This Museum is under Mr. Mable, to whom belongs most of the credit 

 for its ever having been instituted. Commencing life as a shoemaker, he first 

 set up a school for the poorest class. He also collected the materials from 

 which the Museum has sprung, of which he is now Curator, as well as Principal 

 of the Institution attached to it. 



