253 JiAKE COD FISH. Class IV. 



at this time uninformed of the state of this fishery, 

 but find that Mr. Smith, who wrote the history 

 of the county of J'Faterford, complains even in 

 his time (1746) of its decline. Many of the 

 gregarious fishes are subject to change their 

 situations, and desert their haunts for numbers 

 of years, and then return again. We see p. 135, 

 how unsettled the Basking Shark appears to be : 

 Mr. Smith instances the loss of the Hadock on 

 the Watt) ford shores, where they used to swarm; 

 and to our knowledge we can bring the capri- 

 ciousness of the herrings, which frequently quit 

 their stations, as another example. 



Sometimes the irregular migration of fish is 

 owing to their being followed and harassed by an 

 unusual number of fish of prey, such as the 

 shark kind; sometimes to deficiency of the 

 smaller fish, which served them as food ; and 

 lastly, in many places to the custom of trawling, 

 which not only demolishes a quantity of their 

 spawn, which is deposited in the sand, but also 

 destroys or drives into deeper waters numberless 

 worms and insects, the repast of many fishes. 



The hake is in England esteemed a very 

 coarse fish, and is seldom admitted to table 

 either fresh or salted. * 

 Descrip- These fishes grow from a foot and an half to 



TION. 



* When cured it is known by the name of Poor John, 



