8 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



hugeness of the catch of 1913 has been almost phenomenal. It 

 goes without saying that some vagaries of distribution would 

 naturally follow such invasions ; and, on October 29th, whilst 

 some Aldeburgh fishermen were busy with rod and line among 

 the Whitings — also uncommonly numerous on the Aide, twelve 

 miles from the sea — Herrings were attracted to their lugworms 

 which they were using as bait; at these they bit very much 

 after the manner of Eoach, and gave some lively play, a dozen in 

 all being hooked. This distance from the sea had been eclipsed 

 by a stray Herring that had wandered as far as Geldeston locks, 

 on the Waveney, and was taken in a net with Smelts, some years 

 since, a journey of quite eighteen miles from Lowestoft Harbour. 

 This individual, had it entered Oulton Broad through the lock, 

 or had it passed through Breydon, and so up the Suffolk river, 

 must in any case have gone some miles in quite fresh waters. 



The capture of individual adult Herrings by rod and line, 

 above referred to, was not a solitary instance, although in this 

 neighbourhood rather unusual. Day ('British Fishes ') mentions 

 their capture in Scottish lochs as a common circumstance, bare 

 white hooks being drawn through the water at which they freely 

 snatch. A writer in the ' Angler's News,' dealing with the 

 subject, stated that at Calais Docks, from January to March, 

 " spent " or spawned Herrings are to be seen in numbers preying 

 on young Elvers. Anglers took advantage of their voracity, and 

 captured numbers by impaling a small worm loosely on hooks 

 that they drew quickly through the water. Juvenile Herrings, 

 not longer than one's finger, are very freely taken every summer 

 in the Lowestoft Basins, the anglers, of all classes and ages, 

 using a tiny quill float and a single hook baited with a piece of 

 Shrimp the size of a B.B. shot. 



The strangest Herring story of the year was published in a 

 local paper on November 25th, relating to a "bloater" that 

 was being prepared for breakfast by a lady in Norwich. " She 

 noticed something glittering, and her curiosity being aroused, 

 she made the surprising discovery that a gem of some description 

 was nestling among the offal. On washing the stone it was 

 found to be a diamond of some worth, being highly transparent 

 and colourless." The stone is stated as being the size of a 

 marrow-fat pea, and had, it was thought, once been set in 



