THE COD FAMILY AND THE SAND-EELS 259 



a private fishing enquiry at every village of importance on 

 the coast between Brixham and the Land's End, he received 

 various confirmatory reports of this falling-ofF of hake, 

 particularly at Mousehole, where this fish, so plentiful ten 

 or fifteen years ago, was said to have virtually disappeared. 

 This result was, fairly or otherwise, attributed to the opera- 

 tions of Plymouth trawlers on the inshore grounds. 



As already mentioned, the hake has an elongated body, and 

 it grows to a length of at least 4 ft. and a weight of at least 

 24 lb. The fish is in life more silvery in appearance than most 

 of the family, for silver pigment is noticeably lacking in both 

 the cods and flat-fishes. The lateral line is dark and nearly 

 straight. The colour of the hake is, as a rule, dark grey 

 along the back, shading off^ somewhat gradually to white 

 beneath. Garstang * has given an interesting account of an 

 albino hake, which was in wretched condition. This he 

 ingeniously attributed to the handicap of its light colouring, 

 which would make it very conspicuous at night, its only 

 feeding-time, and thereby hinder it in obtaining sufficient 

 food. The scales are rather small, and cover part of the 

 head and gill-covers. The jaws are long, and powerfully 

 armed with two rows of sharp teeth, the interior of the 

 mouth being, as in Pristiurus, of a dark hue. 



The hake spawns, according to some authorities, from 

 early in the year until late summer. Although the fish is 

 caught in numbers on the east coast of Scotland, the egg had 

 not, at any rate up to 1897,1 been found in those waters, 

 but it had been studied at Naples by Dr. Raffaele, who 

 artificially fertilised it at the aquarium there in May. It 

 measures only about -^ in., and is therefore somewhat small 

 for so large a parent. In the conditions alluded to, hatching 

 took place in less than three days, for the temperature of 

 the water was high ; but Masterman rightly suggests that it 



* See Journ. Mar. Biolog. Assoc, November, 1900, p. 275. 

 t Mcintosh and Masterman, op. at., p. 274. 



