456 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



much remarked on by fish-buyers at the wharf, as the fishermen, 

 who now " cran " out their takes instead of counting them, 

 throw them into the baskets promiscuously with Whitings, 

 small Mackerel, and the like, on the principle of all going to 

 make up bulk. 



The first Sprats sent up from Suffolk appeared on the fish- 

 mongers' slabs on November 4th. 



When strolling by the beach to the harbour-mouth on 

 November 6th, I observed many dead and decaying Mackerel 

 and Herrings which had been thrown up by the tide. Several 

 Picked Dogfishes, averaging two feet in length, were also stranded, 

 with some one-pound Whitings. All of these were undoubtedly 

 fish that had fallen from the nets. I also found two Guillemots, 

 which in all probability had also met with their demise in the 

 meshes of the herring-nets. It has been observed that many of 

 the Mackerel have been bitten this year by Dogfish. 



Garfish plentiful with the Mackerel in October and November. 



The Herring fishery up to the time of writing has been a 

 sadly disappointing one ; a succession of boisterous storms, 

 following quickly on one another, has marred the prospects of 

 fisher-folk, and those who follow them. Only once or twice 

 has there seemed anything like a full wharf. Gales have come 

 on so suddenly and unexpectedly after the nets have been 

 " shot " at sea that it has been impossible to haul them, and 

 much damage through entanglement and breakage has resulted. 

 To my mind the catching power is now vastly too great (thanks 

 to company-mongering and greed for dividends) for the neces- 

 sarily restricted area to which the spawning shoals resort. I 

 hope I am in error, but in my opinion there is a danger of 

 scaring and breaking up the " schools," and that some day — and 

 maybe it is not far distant — the harvest of the Herrings will not 

 be so remunerative as of late years. There is no close-season ; 

 the grounds are worked every day in the week (save in very bad 

 weather), Sundays included, and in my estimation the restless 

 turmoil of a throbbing steam fleet crowding there must have a 

 detrimental effect. These opinions may be speculative, but 

 those who prophesied a few years ago that reckless, unscientific 

 trawling would destroy the feeding-grounds of the deep-sea 

 fishes this side the Dogger, although then laughed at, lived 



