22 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and many a retailer will buy one or more trunks of fish for his 

 business requirements ; but the mode of disposal is the same. 

 The auctioneer, preceded by a man ringing a bell, mounts upon 

 one of the fish-trunks, and shouts his ware : "Now, then, But 

 buyers," " Roker buyers," " Lachet buyers," or as the case may 

 be. The buyers crowd round, and amid jocular remarks, in 

 which the seller does his part, trunk after trunk, piled with 

 Turbot, Brill, Whiting, Plaice, Soles, Skate, and a dozen other 

 kinds, are rapidly disposed of, whilst others are being as rapidly 

 landed from fresh arrivals to take their place. 



It is the wharf for trawl-fish which is the most attractive to 

 the student of fishes, and I scarcely ever went there but I saw 

 something of special interest. There were always vast quantities 

 of flat-fish of various kinds, from costly Turbot, some very large, 

 and almost equally costly Soles, to humble Plaice and Dabs ; but 

 the infinite variety in the tints and disposal of the colours and 

 markings was very interesting. I am told that the salesmen are 

 so experienced that they can tell at once by the appeai'ance of the 

 fish from what locality they were dei'ived. Large numbers of 

 Skate and Rays were there, from baby fish which figured among 

 the refuse, to monsters, hideous in appearance. Laid by itself, 

 as a "curiosity," on one occasion, I saw a fine Torpedo Ray 

 {Torpedo nohiliana), which is a very rare fish with us. Raia hatis 

 was common enough, but I also saw two specimens of Raia 

 oxyrhyncus, a rare fish here. 



On the 20th a fine Porbeagle was brought in, which measured 

 7 ft. 10 in. long; this species, much to the annoyance of the 

 fishermen, is occasionally entangled in the drift-nets, to which 

 and the contained fish it does immense damage. Large numbers 

 of the Mackerel and Herring show injuries inflicted by the various 

 species of Dog-fish, but I saw very few of these pests landed ; 

 perhaps the fishermen kill them, and throw them back into the 

 seas, as they are of no use to them. 



A PorpDise made its appearance one morning ; they are 

 abundant enough ; but I have never, to my surprise, seen or 

 heard of a Dolphin {Delphinus delpMs) being captured by any of 

 our boats. This is singular, as Sir Thomas Browne knew this 

 species, and there seems no reason why it should not occasionally 

 pay us a visit. 



