32 SEA-FISH. 
though the angler has come nowadays to regard a 
pollack of 10 Ibs. as a good fish. It is found asa 
rule only among the rocks, the depth at which it 
feeds varying with the temperature, light and time 
of day. Cold and excess of sunlight drive it to 
the bottom, while it usually seeks its food, chiefly 
sand-eels and fry, close to the surface during the 
long early summer evenings, when it may be taken 
on surface-tackle from five in the afternoon until 
nine or even later. The pollack is a roving fish, 
a spell of cold weather sufficing to drive it into the 
outer water several miles from land, indeed it does 
not as a rule remain inshore for more than six 
months in the year. When feeling the hook, the 
pollack invariably heads straight for the ground, 
and this is the fact in its life-history that it most 
behoves the angler to bear in mind, for unless 
prepared to negotiate very warily, the finger being 
pressed on the rim of the reel to check the run, a 
smash will almost inevitably ensue. The rapidity 
with which the pollack decomposes has been 
alluded to; no fish is less fitted to bear transport 
inland, a fact to remember when sending presents 
of fish, 
The iniquities of the blue shark and of more 
Por. than one dog-fish have already been men- 
beagle tioned ; and it remains to add a few words 
shatk about the heaviest and most evil-smelling 
species of shark with which the amateur is likely 
to be troubled in English waters. A far deeper 
fish for its length than the more graccful blue 
shark, this specimen is netted in Cornish bays to 
a length of over ro feet, the weight of which may 
be approximately estimated when it is considered 
