484 - MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE SMELT IN NORFOLK WATERS. 
No. 7 were taken ou 29tli August; average length, 3J inches, 224 
to the lb. 
No. 8 were taken on 28th October; average length, 3^ inches, 210 
to the lb. 
No. 9 were taken on 23rd November; average length, 3 1 inches, 
195 to the lb. 
No. 10 were taken on 6th January, 1883 ; average length, 4 inches, 
149 to the lb. 
No. 11 were taken on 24th March; average length, 4 inches, 112 
to the lb. 
No. 12 is a sample of the Yellow Gobies, which are caught in the 
trim nets by millions. 
No. 13, young Sprats, also caught in the trim nets. 
No. 14, small Shrimps, also caught in the trim nets. 
“ The Smelts appear in a great measure to feed, while in the brackish 
waters of the rivers, upon the fry of Sprats and Herring, small Shrimps, 
and the Yellow Goby {Oolites auratus). The average weight of the Gobies 
taken in the river is 640 to the lb. ; the young Herrings and Sprats average 
3360 to the lb. ; the Shrimps weigh 21,942 to the lb. These fish appear to 
form the principal food of the Smelt while in the rivers. 
“ I find that an average-sized female Smelt contains 12,000 eggs, and, 
from the large quantity which spawn in the Ouse every year, the river 
ought to team with Smelts, and would, but for the eight or ten trim or stow 
nets set for their capture. Last June, the net set to catch samples with was 
covered with young Smelts a few days old (see photo’ No. 1). They were 
caught and destroyed in the meshes, and I counted as many as 800 in one 
square yard of it. The number destroyed every day by the huge nets 
set in the river must amount to tens of millions. As can be seen b}" the 
photograph, they are not the slightest use either for food or bait at this age. 
In addition to the destruction caused by the fixed nets to the Smelt fishery, 
myriads of Shrimps, Herrings, Sprats, Yellow Gobies, Anchovies, and 
Whiting are daily destroyed. 
“ These trim nets are set open to the tide by means of three poles ; each 
pole is seventeen feet long, so that the mouth of the net is a large triangle 
seventeen feet on each side. The consequence i.s, that it catches everything 
which moves in the river — fish, fry, and spawn— and keeps the river and the 
adjacent sea or estuary outside in a state of the greatest destitution ; as has 
been proved in America, where the river or auadromous fish have been 
exhausted, the Pelagic fish, or sea fish proper, have deserted that part of the 
coast. The Sole fi.sheries of the Wiish have fallen off of late years, and 
I am very strongly of opinion that, if the.se millions upon millions of Smelts, 
Sprats, Herrings, Shrimps, Gobies, Anchovies, Whitings, &c., were allowed 
free action in the river, they would so increase and multiply, that the Soles 
and other sea-fish would be again attracted to the Wash in largo quantities. 
This has been found to be the case over and over again in America. In .'iome 
