88 mr. a. h. Patterson’s natural history 
washed up on the beach a month before. Sharks and Porpoises 
being utterly useless when taken are seldom brought to the 
wharf in these days of rush and confusion. 
On November 25th Mr. Robert Beazor exhibited on his 
fish-slab a very pretty little Sunfish (Orthagoriscns mold), 
which had been taken in a drift-net and landed on the fish- 
wharf. It measured 25J in. in length, and from tip of dorsal 
to tip of anal fin, 36 in. ; weight, 26f lb. 
A Sprat famine characterised the East Suffolk fisheries 
during the end of 1909. A correspondent writing to me on 
December 4th from South wold assured me “ the longshore 
fishermen are having a very bad time. There are no Sprats. 
I do not remember such a bad time during the last 20 years.” 
On the other hand a correspondent at Folkestone wrote : 
“ The Sprat boats have been bringing in enormous catches, 
in fact, in many cases they were dangerously near sinking, 
they were so full.” 
December 4th. Lapwings plentiful in the market to-day, 
undoubtedly bespeaking an immigration of this species. 
The following notes on the local Smelt fishery, by Mr. Robert 
Beazor, Sen., a fish merchant of some standing, and who 
takes an exceedingly intelligent interest in matters apper- 
taining to ichthyology, are worthy of reproduction in full. 
He writes : — 
“ The Smelt season commenced in the beginning of March, 
the Gorleston fishermen starting, when some six or eight 
boats landed catches varying from three to eight score. 
They were exceptionally fine fish. Many of the river smelters 
had given up and sold their nets and boats because of the 
action of the Bure and Yare Commissioners, who debarred 
them from fishing above Breydon [a very senseless procedure, 
as no fresh-water fishes come down so low as the confluence 
of the two rivers, nor for miles above it, owing to the con- 
stancy of salt water, which goes higher up rivers year by year]. 
This caused a certain supply of Smelts to diminish. April 
was a fair month, and when the weather allowed the beach 
boats to work some procured from thirty to forty score a day. 
