233 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
LEGAL NATURAL HISTORY. 
We take the following fair sample of legal natural history 
from the daily press : — Mr. E. H. Tindal Atkinson said the 
Corporation of Malton enjoyed the right of fishing at Gold- 
hangers Spit, in the River Blackwater, under a charter older 
than the Magna Charta. Five men took winkles at this place 
on December and last, and they were fined for ‘ taking fish,’ 
and thus infringing the rights of the Corporation. It was 
argued for the men that, as a winkle could not be taken by 
angling, it was not a fish. 
Mr. Justice Darling : The whale which swallowed Jonah, 
we are told in the Bible, was a fish, but it is now generally 
admitted that he is not a fish, though you can take him by 
angling. (Laughter). 
Mr. Atkinson said that if a winkle was a fish, so was an 
oyster, but the Legislature had said it was not. 
LEGAL HUMOUR. 
The Lord Chief Justice : We hear of oyster fisheries. 
Mr. C. E. Jones, for the Corporation, said the winkle, 
being a shell-fish, came within the dictionary or general 
category of ‘ fish.’ 
In reply to Mr. Justice Darling, Mr. Atkinson said the 
winkles in question were taken for eating. 
The Lord Chief Justice said he believed they were eaten 
with a pin. (Laughter). 
Mr. Justice Darling : That reminds me of what Mr. Sam 
Weller said on one occasion : ‘ Don’t compel me to use 
stronger measures,’ as the nobleman said to the winkle when 
he cracked him behind the dining-room door, after vainly 
trying to extract him with a pin.’ (Laughter). 
After further argument Mr. Justice Darling pointed out 
that the words of the section applied to fish taken ‘ in the water.’ 
The point had not been taken by the appellant’s counsel, but 
it seemed that the men were picking up the winkles on the 
rocks, and that would not be ‘ in the water.' The case was 
sent back to the justices for evidence to be taken on the point 
whether the winkles were taken ‘ in the water ’ or not. 
MUSEUMS CONFERENCE. 
The 25th Annual Conference of Museum Curators was held 
at Swansea during the week commencing July 6th. this being 
the first visit of the Museums Association to Wales. In this 
Principality museum matters have recently received a great 
impetus by the establishment at Cardiff of the National Museum 
of Wales ; and other towns are doing their best to emulate 
the example set by their more fortunate neighbour. By the 
1914 Aug. 1* 
P 
