but few Lugs are found with them, as they mostly live apart from each other. They are particularly useful for Atherine or Sand-Smelt fishing, but are taken also by other fish. Half an inch of this Worm is better than a larger piece for Atherine. A white Worm is used for Whiting-catching in Wales, identical, I apprehend, with this. It grows from 3 to 7 inches in length. It will live a week or ten days in salt water changed daily. A prejudice is held against this Worm by some fishermen, but Pollack, Bream, Atherine, Wrasse (and probably other fish), will all feed on it. At Dawlish, in Devon, no other bait is used when whiffing for Pollack, and it is baited as shown at page 85.

THE VARM OR SEA TAPE-WORM

is a very large flat Worm, and an excellent bait for Whiting, Pout, Bream, &c. When broken, always put the heads and tails in dry sand and in different boxes. (See also p. 100.)

THE EARTH, Lob, or Dew-WORM.

(Vermis terrestris).

The use of this Worm for Pollack and Mackerel has been described at p. 85, fig. 32. To procure a quantity, search on grass-plots or flower-beds with a lantern on a wet evening or during a heavy dew, also in a paved court after sunset. Place them in a tub with some earth and plenty of moss on the top; they will live a long time if you examine them occasionally, and pick out those which may be dead or sickly. They are very useful where Rag-Worms are not obtainable, which is the case on large sections of the coast.

THE SAND-EEL AND LAUNCE.

(Ammodytes tobianus and Ammodytes lancea.)

These silvery little fish, of eel-like form, are very numerous on most sandy coasts, where they bury themselves during the receding tide, and whence they are frequently dug out in great numbers. The method of using them alive has been so fully entered into under Pollack' and 'Mackerel,' &c., that it is un

necessary to repeat it here. These little fish have a wide range, being found all round our coasts, those of France, Holland, Heligoland, Norway, North America, and possibly elsewhere in congenial situations. Their capture with the seine is fully described at pp. 74 and 228. Sometimes an iron rake is used to take them in loose sand, at others a small hook like a sickle or reap-hook, with a very blunt but jagged edge, that it may hold them without cutting them in two, which it will most assuredly do if the edge be at all thin or sharp. During moonlight nights many Launcing parties,' as they are called, are made for a visit to the sands at low spring tides, in summer and autumn, and sometimes quite a 'Saturnalia' is held. In the island of Jersey, from the abundance of the Sand-Eel, one of the beaches has received the name of 'Grève au Lançon,' that is, ‘SandEel Beach.'

Almost all sea-fish devour them greedily.

Dipping Sand-Eels on the Surface. At times the SandEels collect in large shoals, and if discovered by the porpoises become so bewildered as apparently to lose all power of escape, either from the porpoises below or the gulls above, the former diving through them and munching them by mouthfuls, the latter dipping down and picking up the little silvery creatures with amazing rapidity. In order to avail themselves of such opportunities, fishermen provide a small meshed landing-net like a pool Shrimp-net, and, sculling up to the shoal, dip the net full to the ring, thus getting a large supply with little trouble. Such opportunities are rare. The small silvery fish known as the Mackerel-Brit may be taken at times in the same manner.

FRESHWATER EELS.
(Anguillæ.)

Eels are, I believe, universal in temperate climates, in almost every brook, drain, or tidal pond, on the largest continents or the smallest islands, and as they are frequently used as baits for Whiting-Pollack, and are also taken by Mackerel and Bass, they must not be passed by unnoticed. Those from 4 to 6 inches in length are the best, and the brighter in colour the

more attractive. An excellent method of procuring them is to throw a bundle of osiers or withes into a muddy pit in a brook, drain, or tidal pond, when, after it has remained a few days, you will generally find in it a number of small Eels, fit for your purpose. If you require any at a short notice, take a fine Shrimp-net, and look in a harbour, tidal river, or small brook, for flat stones of a moderate size, and take up the stone in the net, when you will frequently have one or two Eels with it. You may often also procure small Eels by turning up the stones in a small brook, and catching them with a three-pronged kitchen dinner-fork, or nipping them with a pair of old notched scissors.

THE LAMPERN OR LESSER LAMPREY.

(Petromyzon fluviatilis.)

The Lesser or River Lamprey is usually from 7 to 10 inches long, and is so called to distinguish it from the Lamprey Eel, which attains the size of three or four pounds. They are very numerous in many English rivers and small brooks, where, during March and April, I have found them twenty or more together sticking to a stone, like leeches, from which circumstance they derive their name. They are good bait for WhitingPollack, better than Eels, as they are very much brighter under the belly. (See p. 82, fig. 26.)

They are useful cut in two for night-lines for large Eels, as is also the Pride or Blind Lamprey, and large numbers are used for Turbot and Cod trots. The seven little holes like shot-holes are very remarkable. A Shrimp-net or fine landingnet is the best adapted for taking them, when they should be kept in a bait kettle with a large stone or two for them to suck, and sunk under water.

Lampreys are not nearly as tenacious of life as ordinary Eels. A regular fishery for Lamperns is followed at Teddington on Thames.

THE LIMPET.

(Patella vulgata.)

Limpets are so well known as scarcely to need description, and may be used as bait when nothing better can be had. The

soft part should be cut off and put in the sun for an hour before fishing, if possible, and will become somewhat firmer than if used at once. Sea Bream will take it well, also Whiting-Pout, and if the fish are well on the feed they will also take the hard part, but this is not ordinarily the case. Garden Snails are sometimes used with success.

THE WHELK.

(Buccinum undatum.)

The Whelk is much used as bait for Cod, and is procured by varied modes of capture. There is a very considerable demand for it in the London market, and great quantities are disposed of, ready cooked, at the fish-stalls in the poorer neighbourhoods. At Margate &c. boats are specially fitted. out for dredging Whelks, and they are also taken on trots or long lines without hooks, the bait a number of small Crabs strung by aid of a needle on a twine snooding 2 feet long, made fast to the main line at about fathom intervals. Another method is to set dip-nets as for Prawns, with fresh fish instead of stale for bait. They enter Crab and Lobster pots in great numbers when baited with pieces of fresh Skate. It is necessary to break the shell with a hammer to extract the Whelk. Horseflesh is much used as a bait for Whelks.

THE CUTTLE FISH.
(Sepia.)

The Cuttle Fish is often taken amongst other fish in the seine or trawl-net, and is a good bait for Bass, Cod, Conger, &c.; the flesh seems something in consistence between jelly and leather, very tough and of a beautiful pearly whiteness, and it is this toughness which makes it so useful a bait for Bassfishing off a beach, when the lead must be cast with all one's force to get it as far seaward as possible, clear of the breakers. it has in its back a bone of a shield-like shape, often found cast up on the beach, which was formerly much used as an absorbent, and as tooth-powder when pounded. The head of this creature is divided at the extremity into eight projections or horns, from inside which hang two, six or eight times longer,

and the whole of them have a number of circular tubercles, by help of which it clings to and sucks into its throat any unfortunate fish it may succeed in capturing, and proceeds to devour it by help of a horny, parrot-like beak placed at the entrance thereof. In its inside is a small bag filled with an ink-like liquid, which is its means of defence when attacked; this it vomits forth in a dark cloud, and blackens the water for some feet around it. This liquid was used for writing by the ancients, and it is believed to form the chief ingredient in the Indian ink used by artists, as a very large kind is found in the Eastern seas. Clean these fish by pulling off the head, and splitting them sideways, remove the skin, backbone, and inkbag, and wash them in salt water. They should be cleaned as soon as dead, and if put in a cool place will keep a day or two; sometimes they are salted, but are certainly not as good as fresh. Sausages were made from them by the Greeks and Romans, and they are eaten at the present day in some parts of the kingdom and on the Continent.

THE SQUID. (Loligo vulgaris.)

This kind is much more numerous than the first named, and they are found in large shoals. The body is of a somewhat cylindrical shape, semi-transparent, and of a greenish hue whilst alive, changing to speckled brown, and the bone long, thin, and more transparent than thinly-scraped horn, but equably flexible. From the resemblance of this bone to a quill-pen, the Squid has been called the pen-and-ink fish, the ink being contained in a bag in the interior of the body.

It is better bait than the large Cuttle for Conger, Cod, or Bass, as it is not so hard and quite as tough. The Squid are often taken for bait in the following manner: Take half a Gar-fish or Long-Nose, or for want of it any small fish, and lower it to within a few feet of the bottom by a fishing line: if there are any about, they will at once seize upon it, when you must draw them steadily to the surface, and being before provided with a stick 6 feet in length with four hooks No. 7 (fig. 64c, p. 213) lashed on the end back to back, hook the fish near the