food at all times, but are best in summer; spawn in December. POLLACK fishing now commences, and is practised throughout the fine weather, BASSE enter harbours and estuaries in summer, especially in July; remain till September; occasionally reach the weight of 20lbs.

July.

This is a very busy month to the fish dealer, there being many kinds brought to market in great plenty. The HAKE now gets common and palatable, remaining so through the Autumn and till the close of the year. The young, from eight inches and upwards, are also brought for sale. It has been always remarked that Hakes are plentiful when Pilchards arrive, and it seems that the species pursues Pilchards as its food. SKATE now gets in season, and continues so through autumn and beginning of winter, but is not good in spring or early summer. The THORNBACK is chiefly taken in spring and summer, owing to its habits of migration, but ALL THE RAYS are best as food in the end of autumn, and the early part of winter. Fishing for CHADS (young Sea Bream) is a favorite amusement during summer; owing to the readiness with which they seize a bait, and from the numbers that can be taken, they form good sport. PILCHARD fishery often begins thus early, in Cornwall.

The

August.

The summer fishery is still actively pursued. The two kinds of MULLET, though frequently secured in July, do not abound till August; they continue to be taken in estuaries, and even as far up the rivers as the tide reaches, during all the Autumn. It is an agreeable autumnal scene to observe a party of fishermen arrive in their boat high up a river with the full tide, and deposit the ground sein to capture the shoal of silvery Mullets which had gone up to secure some favorite food conveyed to them with the stream of fresh water; the fishers exert themselves with great activity to draw ashore their captives, who, impatient of the new restraint, leap over the headline as opportunity offers. Mullets taken in bays and harbours during November or December do not make these exertions, they are then less bulky, less silvery, and less agile. DORIES now get common, and continue to be taken till the end of winter; some however may be noticed in the markets nearly the year through. But few of the large ones seem to be reserved for the Plymouth

Market. Mr. Couch observes that the ANCHOVY abounds on the Cornish coast towards the end of summer, and that, sufficient might be procured to supply Great Britain, if attention were directed to the fishery in October, and November. The HERRING is often on our coast in July, but, the fishery seldom prospers till now; it continues to be an object of great importance to the end of November, and sometimes till December. EELS, which have resided through the summer in the fresh parts of rivers, as they descend to the brackish water, on their way to deposit their spawn in harbours, are now taken plentifully by the rod and line, by men stationed in boats midway the stream, at its shallower parts. These Eels proceed at once to the important function of depositing the roe, and, when the cold sets in about Christmas, lay themselves up for the winter in the mud of branches of estuaries, staying in these hybernacula till revisited by the warmth of spring. I know not when Eels are poor as diet, but, they seem to be best in this month, and the next. Great numbers, natives of the mud of the harbours adjacent to Plymouth, are constant inhabitants of those spots, and seem to continue active even through the winter,-they perform no

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