1 86 
TjfJE HAKE. 
ges ; the tail is not forked, but each ray being equally 
produced, terminates in the fame ftraight line. 
The hake is found in abundance on many of our coails , 
particularly thofe of Ireland, where there was formerly 
a dated filhery on the Nymph Bank off iVaterford ; im- 
menfe quantities were caught there at the two fealons of 
their periodical appearance, June and September, when 
fix men with hooks and lines frequently killed a thou- 
{and filli in one night ; the produce of this filhery was 
falted up and exported to Bilhoa in Spain ; it has, how- 
ever, been for many years upon the decline, owing to the 
fitli deferting their wonted ftation *. 
This dereliction of their accuftomed haunts, is not pe- 
culiar to the fillies of this fpecies ; the haddock has ia 
the fame manner abandoned the coafts of Waterford, and 
the herrings and the balking {harks have difplayed the 
fame caprice, in relinquilhing their ftations on feveral 
parts of the Britijh Oiores. Naturalills have not yet giv- 
en any plaufibie account of this irregularity in the mi- 
gration of fillies ; In fome inftances it may be occafione 
by the dole purfuit of an unufual number of predator/ 
filh, to avoid wliofe voracity they may be driven up° n 
fbores that they were formerly unaccuftomed to frequent, 
a deficiency of the fmaller filh, that fupplied them, ma/» 
in other inllances, have forced them to abandon a residence, 
where they could no longer be fupported ; But the p er ' 
nicious cuftom of trawling, is perhaps the mofl^comnW** 
caufe of their abandoning the ufual flations, becaule, 
that means, not only a great part of their fpawn is dem^ 
lillied, which was lodged in the land, but the worms a" 
* Smith’s Hitt. of Waterford, p. 461 . 
