SOME FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 449 



thinning out its numbers. At a recent meeting of the Eastern 

 Sea Fisheries District Committee a member asserted that the 

 damage done by Seals was enormous ; fishermen frequently 

 hauled in their lines with only Cods' heads attached, and in 

 some cases they had been cleared altogether. It was suggested 

 that the skins of any shot could be sold to the tanners for from 

 five to ten shillings ; for what purpose they could be utilized I 

 am at a loss to suggest. The Fishery Inspector has seen as 

 many as two hundred at a time on one of the sand-banks ; he 

 suggested that the Government send one of their small gun- 

 boats, as their weapons could easily get within range, and not 

 only kill but frighten. About one thousand Seals frequented 

 the banks in the Wash. It is interesting to the naturalist to 

 hear that such a thriving colony is still to be found in such 

 busy waters as the Norfolk estuary. Two large Seals were 

 discovered asleep under the shelter of the sand-hills on Yarmouth 

 south beach late in October, having undoubtedly come from 

 their favourite quarters on strong flood-tides. They were quite 

 as surprised as the person who discovered them, and scuttled 

 down to the sea in a violent hurry. 



Other than one or two very small dead Porpoises in a de- 

 plorable condition, no cetaceans were thrown on the beach. But 

 at Lowestoft, on October 16th, as already recorded {ante, p. 428), 

 I saw the badly decomposing carcase of a Lesser Eorqual Whale 

 {Balcenoptera rostrata). Strangely enough, near the same date, 

 another carcase of the same species was washed ashore at Size- 

 well, on the Suffolk coast. It was headless, the remaining 

 portion covering a length of 22 ft. It must have been identical 

 in size with its Lowestoft relative. I do not know how to 

 account for their demise and stranding. It is just possible they 

 were derelicts from the Norwegian small Whale fishery that may 

 have escaped, and been finally stranded after having drifted 

 southwards on successive tides. 



Early in October my nephew, who serves on board the ' Leman 

 and Ower ' lightship, reported seeing an immense shoal of 

 " Scoulters " (probably Bottle-nosed Dolphins ?), numbering, he 

 thought, hundreds; they were continually broaching and dis- 

 porting themselves, a lively mode of progression that would 

 make count very dif&eult. They were working southwards. 



