578 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
by Mr. A. Svensson, with a Sand-Eel net from Hal- 
land, a quantity (several hundreds, if not thousands) 
of Sand-Launces about 7 cm. long were taken and ob- 
served at Ronnklippa off Runmaro. Lindstrom found 
the species oft' Gothland. In the north and east of the 
Baltic, however, it is considered at least rarer than the 
Sand-Eel, the range of which extends, according to 
Mela, in the Gulf of Bothnia to the neighbourhood of 
Bjorneborg and in the Gulf of Finland to Cronstadt. 
In the Atlantic, on the other hand, the Sand-Eel does 
not go so far north, for it is unknown, according to 
Collett, north of Trondhjem Fjord. On the English 
coast it is common at certain spots, though here and 
still more in the Channel on the coast of France the 
Sand-Launce is the commoner species. Bonaparte in- 
cludes the Sand-Eel among the fishes of Italy, and ac- 
cording to Day it occurs, though extremely rarely, in 
the Mediterranean; but neither Steindachner, Moreau, 
nor Giglioli assigns it to this locality. 
These two species, the most common Scandinavian 
forms of the genus, seem to have exactly the same 
habits, and in most places are found together. In ge- 
neral the smaller species, the Sand-Launce, seems to 
be the more plentiful. This is evidently the case in 
Scania, where Sundevall found the Sand-Eel to form 
hardly a tenth of the catch. Off the Danish islands 
Kroyer considered the two species to be more evenly 
distributed, but on the coast of Jutland the Sand-Launce 
was said to be the more common. In the Great Belt 
and Sam see Belt Wintrier found the catch to consist al- 
most entirely of Sand-Eels. Among some hundred Sand- 
Launces forwarded to the Royal Museum from Halmstad 
in the month of August, there was only one specimen 
of the Sand-Eel. On the coast of Bohuslan, too, ac- 
cording to Malm, the Sand-Eel is rarer than the Sand- 
Launce, which at suitable spots is common. 
The Sand-Eel" generally haunts a sandy bottom, in 
which it can bury itself. It works itself with wonder* 
ful skill and rapidity into the sand, where it seems to 
lie hid, at a depth of lV 2 dm. or more, the greater part 
of the day, coming up only at intervals. In winter it 
lives in deeper water; but in spring, when the water 
begins to grow somewhat warmer, both species ascend 
together to sandy, shelving spots along the shore and 
stay there all the summer. In Scania this takes place 
at the end of May, and the fishery begins immediately 
afterwards. During the course of October they again 
return to deep water. 
The most productive Sand-Eel fishery in the whole 
of Sweden is carried on in the little inlet just north of 
Simrishamn. So much fish is taken here, according to 
Nilsson, that- the Rector of Gladsax receives as his tithe 
of the fishery 6 barrels (989 litres) of dried Sand-Eels. 
The town probably owes its origin to this fishery. 
During the whole summer and until October the fishery 
is pursued there daily, when not interrupted by storms, 
with fine-meshed seines, which are shot at a depth of 
3 fathoms and hauled up on shore. The fishing begins 
soon after noon and continues until nearly sunset. 
Sand-Eels are also especially plentiful at the following 
places: south of Ahus, at the fishing-villages of Vik 
and Baskemolla (north of Simrishamn) — where in 1880, 
according to Mr. Lundberg, Inspector of Fisheries, the 
catch was about 50 hectolitres, of a value of 302 crowns 
(£16 10s.) — at Kaseberga (between Simrishamn and 
Ystad), off Yst-ad, just east of the town and down to 
the mouth of Kopinge River, and at the fishing-village 
of Abekas (west of Ystad). At these spots some quantity 
sometimes comes into the market, but in the rest of 
Scania, as well as in Halland, Sand-Eels seem to be used 
almost exclusively as bait for Cod. At the south-west 
corner of Scania (Trelleborg, Skanor) these fishes are 
quite unknown to the fishermen, according to Sunde- 
vall; and in the Sound according to Sciiagerstrom, 
both species are rare, though large quantities were taken 
at the fishing- village of Raa in September, 1837. Further 
up the Baltic, as even Linnaeus tells us, some Sand- 
Eels are caught off Ottenby, on the south point of 
Gland, and used as bait- for Cod. This fishery is carried 
on with seines the cod-end (sac) of which is composed 
of a sheet which is turned towards the sun and thus 
attracts the Sand-Eels by its brightness. A similar 
seine is used in ITalland. — At Simrishamn, it- is said, 
o 
the fishery is carried on in the afternoon. At Ahus 
and Ystad the fishermen are out both in the morning 
and in the evening, and in dull weather in the middle 
of the day as well. It is only at these times that the 
Sand-Eels move about in the water. In the island-belt 
of Stockholm, in summer, Sundevall pretty often met 
with small Sand-Eels, between ®/ 4 and 1 dm. long, 
swimming about freely here and there among the is- 
lands where there was no sand at- the bottom, and also 
From Ihis point to the end of the description Sand-Eel is used as a general term for both species, except where otherwise stated. Tr. 
