477 
IS THE WHITEBAIT A DISTINCT SPECIES ? 
BY THE EDITOE. 
N ow that all London is rushing away to Richmond^ Green- 
wich^ and BlackwalC to indulge in whitebait dinners^ a 
few words anent the history of the little fish which is such a 
source of good fortune to the proprietors of the Star and 
Garter and the Trafalgar/^ may not be out of place. We 
believe it is usual in cases like the present to say in the first 
instance something of the chronologic history of the subject ; 
in other words_, to relate when and where first mention was 
and is made of it. If we have to depart from so excellent a 
custom, it is not because we have not endeavoured to make 
ourselves acquainted with the facts. We beg, therefore, the 
indulgence of our readers. In vain have we travelled over the 
pages of ponderous encyclopaedias, and evoked the assistance 
of that refuge of all literary unfortunates, the reading-room of 
the British Museum. Of our efforts to obtain information 
from the materials in the latter institution we pride ourselves 
a little, when we consider the wonderful disregard for public 
convenience and the magnificent contempt for anything in the 
shape of useful arrangement which the managers of that part 
of our national collection display. We repeat, therefore, that 
we trust our readers will pardon our inability to supply them 
Avith the early history of the whitebait. That it has an early 
history is of course undoubted, but it must be handed down 
by abler hands than ours. At present it seems to us to be 
very much in the condition of Topsy,"’"’ who in ignorance of 
her ever having been born, arrived at the inevitable conclusion 
that she growed.^'' It is really strange that in none of the 
earlier dictionaries — the work of ^‘^the great lexicographer^^ 
included — does the word whitebait occur. The same may be 
said of almost all the encyclopaedias. Indeed, in only three 
or four out of the dozen or more of these compilations Avhich 
our language presents, are there half a dozen lines devoted to 
