10 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



sort of concrete and timbered breakwater which is accessible 

 from a staging by means of iron rings let into the buttresses 

 supporting the staging. At high water, and for some time before 

 and after, the water covers this low breakwater, and if it be 

 rough waves break over it. Behind this is a kind of hollow, 

 quite 6 ft. in depth, that is always full. Curiously enough 

 Whitings frequently crowd into this pit, and some venturesome 

 lad a year or so ago found, on dropping his line into it, that it 

 was quite a fertile fishing ground : so at the fall of the tide it is 

 a frequent resort of lads who occasionally capture a number of 

 smallish sized fish. On October 29th I happened to look over 

 the wooden pier into this hollow, and saw three or four lads 

 fishing with improvised tackle — a long crooked osier, and, in one 

 instance, a badly straitened hoop, with the sorriest of lines upon 

 them. They were pulling out foot-length examples almost as 

 quickly as they dropped in their hooks, using for bait small 

 strips of very stale Mackerel, picked up on the tide-mark a short 

 stone's-throw from the pit. A butcher lad, who had delivered his 

 beef to some fishing drifter in the harbour, had encroached upon 

 his master's time, but evidently was prepared to make excuse, if not 

 atonement, with the silvery Whitings that nearly filled his basket. 



Mr. F. T. Lenton, Master of Claremont Pier, Lowestoft, wrote 

 me on December 1st that there had been exceptional takes of 

 fine Whitings, one sea angler about a week before, having had 

 a bag of twenty-two fish weighing 18 lb. 



Mr. H. Tunbridge, the Manager of the Britannia Pier, 

 Yarmouth, on December 6th wrote to the effect that " this 

 season has been a record one for Whitings." From October 16th 

 to December 5th a total of 57,326 had been landed thereon; also 

 351 Dabs, 396 Codlings, 5 Cods, and 4 Congers. Several Soles 

 were caught in August and September. 



I am obliged to Mr. Ernest B. Cooper, of Southwold, for a 

 few notes on the Sprat fishing, &c. He writes as follows : 

 "Sprat fishing has been very dull until this week : no Sprats 

 were caught until the second week in November, and during that 

 month the quantities landed at the Harbour were : — 



Week ending Nov. 15th 233 bushels. 



„ 22nd 140 



* „ ,, „ 29th 150 



