AN ANNOTATED LIST OF CORNISH FISHES. 23 
the county are the Epsom ground, four or five miles south of 
Porthgwarra, and off the Longships and the Brisons. It is 
captured chiefly by long-line fishermen with Pilchard or Mackerel 
as bait. In Cornish waters the fish occasionally attains an extra- 
ordinary size. Buckland mentions one obtained by Matthias 
Dunn that weighed 112 lb., and Bailey, of Penzance, saw one 
taken off Porthgwarra that measured 7 ft. in length and weighed 
105 lb. The largest handled by the writer was 642 lb., and was 
taken at the Bizzies, near Portscatho, in July, 1900. Two 
examples of Murena helena, L., a common Mediterranean fish, 
are recorded from the county by Couch, the last in 1866. In 
March, 1897, a specimen 443 in. long was trawled off the Eddy- 
stone, and taken to the Marine Biological Laboratory, Plymouth 
(Journ. M. B. A. v. 91). | 
The Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio, L.) is a fairly frequent casual 
along the south coast and out to the south-west. Dunn /. says 
it has been taken in the trammel-nets at Mevagissey. Rice 
recollects one being captured at St. Mawes, and one about 4 ft. 
long was taken in a trammel at Porthgwarra in the spring of 
1898, the head of which was seen by the writer. The majority, 
however, are obtained some distance out at sea by the big 
trawlers. In February, 1900, one 5 ft. 2 in. long was brought 
in at Porthleven, and in May, 1902, a fine specimen over 7 ft. 
long was captured by a boat from Newlyn. In 1904 two more 
were reported from Newlyn. Pezzack says that to his personal 
knowledge fifteen to twenty specimens have been landed in that 
district during the past thirty years. 
The Blue Shark (Carcharias glaucus, L.) appears along the 
south coast every year, and is often common in the Bristol 
Channel. It arrives, as a rule, in May or June, and departs in 
the early autumn, but its movements are greatly influenced by 
the warmth of the water. It evidently never puts in an appear- 
ance till the sea-temperature is over 50° F., and as a rule the 
hotter the summer the more plentiful does it become. It has 
been seen as early as the first week in March, and as late as the 
third week in November. In 1906 it wasremarkably common in 
Mevagissey Bay, and a number were taken with bait and line. 
On its first arrival it is generally very savage, and is at all times 
liable to do serious damage to the fishing-gear by rolling itself in 
