238 SEA-FISH. 
and Portugal cannot be said to differ materially from 
that previously described under the various Channel 
ports. ' 
There are, however, a number of seas in Europe that 
are more or less shut off from the outer ocean, differing 
from it more particularly in their percentage of salt and 
feeble tides, both of which are important factors in their 
indigenous fish life. On the fishing that may be had in 
two of the principal, the Baltic and Mediterranean, I 
propose offering a few notes from my own log. ; 
The more northern sea I have not visited since the 
year 18go, but I then spent nearly a year fishing on the 
north German coast, and it is unlikely that 
the conditions should have greatly altered in 
water so under-fished. It cannot be said that the sport 
was of a very varied nature, as, for the greater part of 
the year, plaice, ranging in weight from a few ounces up 
to 3 lbs., formed the bulk of one’s catch. So abundant 
were these fish, however, and so innocent of the wiles of 
fine tackle, that it was no feat, baiting with fresh herring, 
to land three or four score in the course of a couple of 
hours’ fishing from the Warnemiinde pier. 
The great feature of this Baltic fishing, one which may 
be ascribed to the low percentage of salt and the con- 
siderable number of large rivers that empty themselves 
into this enclosed sea, is that river fish are, in the 
summer months at any rate, caught in every estuary 
within a hundred yards of the open sea in the company 
of the said plaice and other marine species. Bream of 
good weight, perch up to 1 lb., bleak in any quantity, all 
swell the day’s catch. I have even heard of jack being 
caught in this way at the very end of the pier in the salt 
water, but was not so fortunate as to get one myself. 
though I had some out of the broad, or Breitling, close by, 
The boat-fishing was, owing to the absence of properly 
known grounds, nothing more than a game of chance, the 
best catch being an occasional garfish that had accom- 
panied the small mackerel in from the German Ocean. 
It is as well to know that the fishing in most of these 
German rivers is very strictly guarded by-the professional 
fishermen ; and to such an absurdity was this carried in 
the Warnow, the river alluded to, that even the pro- 
fessionals of \Warnemiinde, the little watering-place at the 
Baltic 
