_FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 445 
An example of the Sowerby’s Hippolyte (Hippolyte spinus), 
the second only I have ever seen, was brought me by a shrimper 
on July 8rd. 
I joined myself to a couple of rural sportsmen on July 11th, 
and with a ‘‘lambing-net”’ (a sort of bow-net held in position by 
a long pole fastened on to the cross-beam with a swivel) worked 
the ditches on a triangular area of marshes between the rivers 
Waveney and Yare. The drainage ditches had been recently 
‘flushed’ by an inlet of water from the river, they having 
become so low and stagnant from the long drought. Hoping 
that the “ freshening’ had been greatly to the enlivening of the 
Hels which frequent these ditches, we gave them not a little 
fright by “‘ plouncing”’ the water, starting to ‘‘ plounce’”’ some 
twenty yards from the net at each ‘‘ set,” a process which drove 
the Hels towards the net as each twelve-foot pole, armed at the 
end by a lump of wood, stirred up the water and ooze into 
numerous dirty little whirlpools. The result of our fishing 
amounted to eighteen pounds of Hels, with the addition of a 
plump little Jack of some five pounds weight. We took very few 
Sticklebacks, on which both Jack and Eels feed; these little 
fellows must lead an exceedingly troublesome existence. The 
Hels, I feel assured, originally found their way into these ditches 
as elvers by working through the interstices of the sluice-gates, 
or when, as in the present instance, they are opened to replenish 
that lost by evaporation. I found that very few small Hels were 
obtained, the majority running from a quarter of a pound to one 
pound. They were of a remarkably ruddy golden hue, quite 
unlike salt-water Kels, and when cooked were far more oily and 
muddy-tasted than clean-run Eels. 
During July a very crooked Smelt was taken on Breydon; 
the dorsal fin stood out high upon a hump, and the adipose fin 
behind on another, the tail being directed downwards at half a 
right angle, something after the fashion of a scull thrust astern 
of a boat (fig. on next page). 
The Crucian Carp (Cyprinus carassius) is numerous in Fritton 
Lake, growing to a goodly size there, but it seldom takes a hook. 
It is stated by Dr. Lowe to be numerous in ponds in Kast 
Norfolk ; the same writer recorded one weighing 1 lb. 7 oz. At 
a shallow horse-pond at Lound, on the Suffolk border, near the 
