FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 23 



by thirty boats, the season beginning on April 15th and ending 

 on July 8th, securing catches of over two million and a quarter 

 Mackerel. 



During the third week in September an emphatically fine 

 Silver Bream (Abramis blicca), weighing 2^- lb., was taken in the 

 Waveney near Beccles. A fish of this species weighing a pound 

 is esteemed a fairly good specimen. 



October 6th. Among the refuse at the tide-line, and in com- 

 pany with many dead Herrings and Mackerel, I found a small 

 Haddock, a rather rare visitor to the Yarmouth seaboard nowa- 

 days. 



According to the ' East Anglian Daily Times ' of Oct. 25th, 

 there had been taken recently in a net, by Mr. George Smy, a 

 Hag-fish, or Myxine {Myxine glutinosa), at Orford, on the Suffolk 

 coast. It measured just over a foot in length. This is, I 

 believe, new to the Suffolk coast, and hitherto has not yet been 

 recorded for the Norfolk seaboard. It is given by Howse, in the 

 ' Catalogue of the Fishes of Northumberland and Durham,' as 

 " not uncommon," and he mentions its " extreme abundance on 

 the east coast." He relates that one hundred and twenty-three 

 specimens were taken out of one Codfish at Kedcar in the winter 

 of 1843. Messrs. Eagle Clarke & Roebuck (' Yorkshire Verte- 

 brates ') state it is " resident and abundant off the whole coast 

 from Bedcar to Flamborough." Dr. Day (' British Fishes *) 

 records it for Moray Firth, Weymouth, Swansea, &c. Dr. Laver 

 (' Mammals, Beptiles, and Fishes of Essex ') does not give it in 

 his list. 



November 8th. Mackerel are being taken in rather unusual 

 numbers for this time of the year. I saw several examples 

 to-day of a very large size. On the 9th I saw a number of 

 Mackerel on the fish-wharf measuring 18 in. 



On Nov. 12th I wrote to the ' Eastern Daily Press,' begging 

 for an opportunity to see any so-called " slinky " (sickly) Cod- 

 fish, caught by sea-anglers, now so numerously crowding every 

 pier on the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts. I have heard of many 

 of these wastrels being taken, but had not so far examined any, 

 the " successful " angler almost in every case having thrown the 

 " lice "-haunted creatures overboard again in disgust. My letter 

 aroused considerable interest, and the first, taken on Britannia 



