SOME BRITISH SEA FISHES AND FISHING 257 



array of fins. Blennies have a Jew-like profile, 

 and, like the chameleon, can move their eyes 

 either in unison or independently in a most absurd 

 manner. Gobies delight to bask in shallow pools, 

 where, when motionless, they are difficult to detect, 

 their backs being the colour of the sand on which 

 they rest. Both gobies and blennies are so 

 fearless that they can be taught to take meat 

 out of one's hand. 



The epithet, Pyscoed (the place of fishes), was 

 of old appropriately applied to Tenby, in Pembroke- 

 shire, and continues to be most applicable. I do 

 not know any place in Britain, always excepting 

 Cornwall and the Scilly Islands, where the amateur 

 fisherman will be certain of obtaining such good 

 sport. Fleets of smacks and boats are employed in' 

 Carmarthen Bay throughout the summer, and the 

 variety of fish brought in is great — salmon, sewin, 

 red and grey mullet, turbot, brill, John Dory, 

 mackerel, pollack, whiting, herrings, plaice, 

 flounders, dabs, gurnard, bass, bream, hake, conger 

 eel, skate, and soles, which last, caught over night 

 and eaten at breakfast, surpass in flavour any 

 I know of, except, perhaps, those at Brixham, 

 in South Devon. They attain a good size, but 

 none have ever equalled the famous Torbay 

 sole, weighing 12^ lbs., whose skin, exhibited at 



17 



