112 VARIETIES OF SEA-FISH. 



with sea-angling. I answer, Anything and everything in the 

 shape of fish or sea-monster, from a sprat to a whale. This is 

 literally true. It is not an unfrequent occurrence for tourists in 

 Orkney, or other places in Scotland, to assist at a whale battue; 

 and some of my readers may remember a very graphic descrip- 

 tion of an Orcadian whale-hunt, given in Blachivood's Magazine, 

 by the late Professor Aytoun, who was Sheriff and Admiral of 

 Orkney. The kind of searfish, however, that are most frequently 

 taken by the angler, both on the coasts of England and Scotland, 

 are the whiting, the common cod, the beautiful poor or power 

 cod, and the mackerel ; there is also the abundant coal-fish, or 

 sea-sahnon as I call it, from its handsome shape. This fish is 

 taken in amazing quantities, and in all its stages of growth. It 

 is known by various names, such as sillock, pUtock, cudden, 

 poddly, etc. ; indeed most of our fishes have different names in 

 different localities ; but I shall keep to the proper name so as to 

 avoid mistakes. The merest children are able, by means of the 

 roughest machinery, to catch any quantity of young coal-fish ; 

 they can be taken in our harbours, and at the sea-end of our 

 piers and landing-places. The whiting is also very plentiful, so 

 far as angling is concerned, as indeed are most of the Gadidse. 

 It feeds voraciously, and wiU seize upon anything in the shape 

 of bait ; several full-grown pilchards have been more than once 

 taken from the stomach of a four-pound fish. Whiting can be, 

 caught at all periods of the year, but it is of course most plenti- 

 ful in the breeding season, when it approaches the shores for the 

 purpose of depositing its spawn — that is in January and February. 

 The common cod-fish is found on all parts of our coast, and the 

 sea-anglers, if they hit on a good locality — and this can be 

 rendered a certainty-^t-are sure to make a very heavy basket. 



The poUack, or, as it is called in Scotland, lythe, also affords 

 capital sport ; and the mackerel-herring and conger-eel can be 

 captured in considerable quantities. I can strongly recommend 

 lythe-fishing to gentlemen who are blasts of salmon or pike, 

 or who do not find excitement even among the birds of lone St. 

 Kilda. Then, as wiU afterwards be described, there is the 

 extensive family of the flat fish, embracing brill, plaice, flounders, 

 soles, and turbot. The latter is quite a classic fish, and has 

 long been an object of worship among gastronomists ; it has been 

 known to attain an enormous size. Upon one occasion an 

 individual, which measured six feet across, and weighed one 

 hundred and ninety pounds, was caught near Whitby. The 



