3G2 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



eminence, rising from the German Ocean, 11 miles E. by N. of 

 Beccles, 7 miles S. of Yarmouth, 25 miles E.S.E. of Norwich, 

 . . . and 114 miles N.E. of London." 



Having said this for Lowestoft, I may make reference to the 

 quiet, sleepy little town of Southwold, situated a few miles 

 to the south of Lowestoft, itself a fishing centre, referred to in 

 White's directory as " a creek under the port of Lowestoft," 

 which at the present moment has shaken itself into sufficient 

 wakefulness as to make promise of some development in its 

 Herring-fishing ambitions. Southwold's long-delayed chances 

 of improvement seem to have been taken advantage of in 1907, 

 when the overcrowding of Yarmouth and Lowestoft harbours by 

 fishing-boats from Scotland, and from other English ports, made 

 a demand for further accommodation. Several of the boats ran 

 into Southwold and landed their catches. In this incident 

 certain energetic townsfolk saw their opportunity, and at once 

 made effort to provide better harbour room, not without much 

 pessimistic prophesying, tinged with fearfulness, on the part of 

 the fishing interest at the premier Herring port. 



In the course of 1908 quite a little muster of Herring-boats 

 fished out of Southwold, which made the following number of 

 landings, viz. : Scotch, 119 ; English, 177. From Mr. H. J. 

 Sayers, a fish-merchant of Southwold, I learn that 1097 trunks 

 of trawl-fish were landed there for the twelve months ending 

 December, as well as 4452 crans of Herrings, and 122,250 hun- 

 dreds of Mackerel, the bulk of these fishes arriving between 

 September and December. He stated to me (July, 1909) that 

 the harbour was being dredged to a depth of fifteen feet at low 

 water, and that great preparations were then on the way to pro- 

 vide pickling-plots and gutting-sheds, while a considerable fleet 

 of boats was expected in for the autumn fishing of 1909. 



In August, 1906, the harbour was in a chaotic state, the piers 

 worm-eaten and weather-worn, with notices here and there 

 warning the stroller not to venture thereon ; the bar at the river 

 entrance was visible at low water. On Aug. 4th of the present 

 year [1909] , in company with Mr. Percival Westell, I revisited 

 Southwold, and found its harbour and approaches undergoing 

 quite a phenomenal metamorphosis ; the ancient breakwaters 

 had disappeared, and were replaced by modern structures ; a 



