AMBROSE ON FISHES OF ST. MARGAEET's BAY. 03" 



surface of the nearly putrid water, these, as well as sculpins-, , 

 flounders and cunners or perch, were continually rising here and'' 

 there in a dying state. Flounders would run ashore on the flat)-- 

 rocks, half way out of water, and there remain to die. The cleac:- 

 sea water was but a short distance from the mouth of the little 

 cove ; but it would seem that these fish, like the drunkard, were 

 not aware that they were being destroyed until it was too late to 

 escajoe. The young pollack made their exit from the letheau 

 pool iu time, and not one of these prudent and self-denying 

 young fellows was found among the dead. The Teredo Navalis, 

 busily at work destroyhig the fisherman's stages, as usual, at last 

 met his match. The poisonous water arrested his mischief, 

 and soon closed his labours forever. 



The water at that time must have been in a terrible state, 

 seeing that any boat newly painted white, if brought into the 

 Cove but for one night, would in the morning be found black 

 below the water line, and lead-coloured above it, and no scrub- 

 bhig could remove the stain, or restore the original colour. 



I may here observe that the Teredo Navalis requires pure 

 sea- water for its existence. Vessels or boats, moored iu the 

 mouths of rivers or large brooks, do not sufter from its ravages 

 in this Province. 



The Perch, Cuxjs'er or Eock-Fish. 



This fish, having spent the winter a little off shore, comes in 

 about the first of May. It spawns iu August. It is most use- 

 ful in clearing the coves of o;arbaa;e, but althouo'h what mioiit bo 

 called a coarse feeder, it has a particular v,'eakness for the eyes 

 of fresh herring. When a herring-net is moored with one end 

 close to shore, in summer, almost all the herring meshed in the 

 in-shore end, if left any considerable time in the net, are found 

 to have had their eyes extracted by the perch. 



Though, as I have just observed, perch are famous scaven- 

 gers, the super-abundant oftal twelve years ago in Peggy's Cove 

 was too much for them. Many died, but of all the small fish 

 in the Cove, the}'^ were the last affected. 



Some perch always remain in the deep water outside 

 feeding on the cod-grounds, in from thirty to sixty fathoms 



