6 SEA-FISH. 
more particularly when interested in pier-fishing, be 
in possession of a correct tide-table (N.B. Those 
sold at seaside libraries are not invafia- 
bly correct) for each month. A very few 
piers, Bournemouth among them, are fitted with a 
tidal gauge and indicator ; and few of the visitors 
who may have noticed the clock-like arrangement 
beneath the bandstand on the last-named pier have 
any idea what a very sensitive recorder it is, with 
its floats and balances, the line traced by the pen 
showing at a glance—to those, at any rate, who know 
the secret—the exact state of the tide for the time 
being. The rise and fall varies much on different 
parts of the coast, being as a rule greater at the 
more exposed ports than in receding bays, as 
instances of which I may quote Hastings! and 
Bournemouth. At the former, there is at low 
spring tides nearly half a mile of uncovered sand 
and shingle between high and low water mark; 
whereas at the latter, the rise and fall is a matter 
of a few feet only. Spring tides are those which 
occur at the new and full moon, the rise and fall 
being then considerably greater than at the neap 
tides, which occur in the moon’s first and third 
quarters. It is generally accepted that the fishing 
is best at the former, when the additional speed of 
the currents sets so much more fish food on the 
move ; but glancing through a few of the more 
recent entries in my diaries, I am disposed to give 
the preference to the quieter conditions obtaining 
during the slacker neap tides. Indecd, so strong 
are the spring tides, especially on the third and 
Tides 
? On the west Sussex coast, the fall of tides is still greater, the 
average difference on the Littlehampton quays at high and low water 
being not far short of 15 fect, and, at spring tides with strong 
N.W. wind, as much as 18 feet. 
