SOME FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 5 



he noticed a very large fish, which proved to be a 1\ lb. Eel, 

 floating on the surface : on picking it up he was astonished to 

 see the head and some three or four inches of another Eel, of 

 some considerable size, protruding. Both had fallen victims to 

 the voracity of the larger one. 



Whether fishes are blessed with anything like a memory, or 

 whether they are less susceptible to pain than most other 

 creatures, has not yet been satisfactorily determined : evidence 

 is conflicting. When trolling with a noted angler on one of the 

 Broads, related an old sportsman to me, a large Perch was 

 hooked, which broke away, tearing the membrane of its mouth. 

 It was struck a second time, and again broke away, but a third 

 hooking proved fatal. When the fish was landed three rents in 

 the cartilage of its mouth were discovered. Yet strangely, some 

 time since, when I was chatting with Miss E. L. Turner on 

 Hickling Broad, she pointed out certain fishes that had come 

 constantly to her houseboat to be fed ; one of them, a war- 

 scarred old fellow (a Budd, I believe it was), she assured me had 

 come to her vicinity two or three years running. The fish were 

 curiously tame, and rushed at crumbs dropped quite close to my 

 fingers. In 1913, Miss Turner told me that some Eels had 

 become so tame and confident as to take crumbs from between 

 her fingers. One day they were missing; probably they had 

 taken some angler's hook, or had perished in some other way. 



On March 18th an 11 in. female Gurnard (Trigla gurnardus) 

 was sent to me by a fish hawker: its head was stunted, the 

 upper lip overlapping the under one, on either side, the lower 

 jaw protruding considerably beyond the obtuse little snout. 



April. — A small Plaice, about 6 in. in length, measured 

 4J in. across the back when the fins were distended. Placing 

 the point of a pair of compasses in the centre of the fish 

 (making allowance for a half-inch of "nose" and the caudal fin's 

 measurement of 1 in.), the other leg of the compass made a 

 complete circle of the fish ; indeed, in sketching it, I first made 

 a circle, and then easily " filled in " the whole. 



The advent of an exceedingly fine Sturgeon in the little river 

 Delph, near Welney, on June 16th, made quite a stir in that 

 corner of Norfolk. Its weight was 31 st. 5 lb., and it measured 

 9 ft. 9 in. in length. The monster was despatched to Spitalfields, 



