AN ANNOTATED LIST OF CORNISH FISHES. 21 
(Clupea pilchardus, L.) is the most characteristic of Cornish fishes. 
Though occasionally taken off Exmouth and Seaton, its English 
range, from the fisherman’s point of view, has in the past been 
from Trevose Head, near Padstow, all round the Cornish coast 
to Start Point, in Devon. In or about 1883, however, the large 
shoals that visited the north coast in abundance in the autumn 
somewhat suddenly ceased to put in an appearance except in a 
casual way, and though large quantities of Pilchards still appear 
in September and October off St. Ives, the great diminution in 
the coasting shoals has caused the large Pilchard seine-fishery 
there to dwindle into insignificance. Casual fish are taken at 
the end of May and early in June, but the great schools do 
not enter the Cornish seas till the middle of June or later. 
The fish are usually thickest close inshore, though in June and 
July, 1905, they were remarkably abundant and compact some 
five miles south-east of the Wolf. All through the summer, as a 
rule, Pilchards are plentiful and dense in Mount’s Bay, and this 
is naturally the seat of the most extensive Pilchard fishing in 
the county. In addition to the local boats from Mousehole, 
Newlyn, and Porthleven, the St. Ives men fish there up to 
September, when they return to their own waters. During the 
Pilchard season the colour of the water in the Bay is green and 
thick so long as the wind Keeps in the south-west, but with a 
northerly or north-east wind for a short time the water gets very 
clear with less fish (Pezzack). The Mevagissey boats fish, as a 
rule, off Veryan and the Dodman, and the Looe boats about 
Downderry and Portwrinkle. This summer, however, for the 
first time for many years, Falmouth Bay proved to be the best - 
of all the fishing centres, especially in the neighbourhood of 
Swanpool, though the fish did not come as close inshore as they 
usually do in Mount’s Bay. The Pilchard fishery may come to 
a close in October, as in 1905, or it may continue through the 
month of November, and on rare occasions up to Christmas. 
The average Cornish Pilchard measures eight to nine inches in 
length, and rarely exceeds eleven, though W. HE. Bailey, of 
Penzance, had a model made of a Cornish specimen that 
measured fourteen inches. As the Sardines sent to England 
in oil in airtight tins are simply young Pilchards which appear 
in great numbers off the French and Iberian coast from May to 
