SOME FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 65 



Herring-fry was remarkably scarce on local waters during 

 the month of August. Breydon usually teems with the silvery 

 little "syle," to the great delight of the Terns, which flock 

 thither under normal conditions to feast upon it, and of the 

 Gulls that gorge themselves with those left stranded among 

 the Zostera when the tide falls off the flats. The Terns were 

 conspicuously absent during all the autumn. 



During a stroll along Gorleston beach on August 26th I saw 

 a great number of Lesser Weevers (Trachinus viper a) washing 

 about with Little Squids {Loligo rondeletti) and tiny Pollacks, 

 &c, the refuse from the draw-nets and shrimp-nets. Some 

 visitors' children were playing " shops " with a number spread 

 out upon a box ; some of these were among the finest specimens 

 I ever saw. How those children escaped injury from the fishes' 

 poisonous dorsal spines was to me more than marvellous. Young 

 Pollacks a few inches long came up river numerously from the 

 sea in September. 



In the middle of September a curious inshoring of Herrings 

 was noticed at Lowestoft, the fish coming quite into the breakers, 

 and many were flung up in the wash of the sea. Young 

 urchins, armed with baskets, fetched them out, to their own 

 great delight. 



A Smooth-hound (Mustelus vulgaris), about 15 in. in length, 

 cast up on the south beach, September 30th. 



On the evening of the same date I was visited by two 

 fellows from a neighbouring public-house, who begged me to 

 return with them to see a curious fish which no one could 

 name. I accompanied them thither, to find the bar crowded 

 with rough fellows in various stages of intoxication and excite- 

 ment, while bets were being freely made upon the creature, and 

 upon my decision. A space being cleared by " Toby " Blake, a 

 local Eel-netter, and to whom the fish belonged, it was shot out 

 of a large rush basket on to the sawdust-covered floor. It was 

 a vile-looking object, almost black in colour, the eyes covered 

 with a white film, and the whole being flabby and offensive to 

 the touch and smell. 



" Now then, 'bor, ivhat is it ? " asked several husky voices. I 

 examined it as well as the haze of pungent tobacco smoke and 

 the gloom of many shadows would allow me, and pronounced it 



