A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK
- 9i. Allis Shad. Clupea alosa, Linn.
Not abundant. According to Paget not un- common with the herrings at Yarmouth. Two specimens recorded by Gurney as taken at Lowestoft in May 1840, a male of 3^ lb. and a female of 4J lb.
- 92. Twaite Shad. Clupta finta^Cm.
Not uncommon at Yarmouth according to Paget. A specimen over 2 lb. in weight was caught with hook and line at Lowestoft in June 1867 (Lowe). APODES
- 93. Eel. Anguilla vulgaris, Turton,
Common in the rivers and estuaries. A quo- tation by Day in his British Fishes states that Mr. Gurney used to find sharp-nosed eels along the coast at Lowestoft, sometimes nearly a mile from the harbour mouth. These were doubtless males, in which the snout is narrower and sharper than in the females. Both sexes however may be taken in the sea, since all eels migrate to the sea in order to spawn. It has now been proved that the spawning of the eel takes place and the young are hatched in the open Atlantic to the west and south of the British Isles, in the neigh- bourhood of the 500 fathom line. The larvae are ribbon shaped and perfectly transparent, and were formerly known as a species of Leptocephalus under the name L. hrevirostris. The identification of this species as the larva of the eel was made by Grassi and Calandruccio at Catania in Sicily in 1893, and in 1905 specimens of this larva were taken in considerable numbers ofiF the entrance to the English Channel, just beyond the 500- fathom line, by the Danish naturalist Johannes Schmidt on the Danish investigation steamer Thor. The spawning eels were not obtained, but the presence of the larvae shows that the spawning takes place not far off; the larvae were not taken at the bottom, but within about 50 fathoms of the surface. Thus all the eels which live in fresh waters in England or elsewhere in north-western Europe are originally hatched in the open Atlantic and migrate thence to the rivers. Eels spawn only once in their lives; those which descend to the sea never return, but die after shedding their eggs and milt. 94. Conger. Conger vulgaris, Cuv. Not uncommon at Yarmouth according to Paget. In October 1895 I saw four specimens landed at Lowestoft by a trawler which had been fishing in the deep water off the town. The larva of the Conger is Leptocephalus morrisi, which has occasionally been taken in shallow water, but there is no doubt that spawning takes place in deep water. Like the eel the conger spawns only once in its life. All the large specimens taken are females, the males never exceeding 2 ft. 6 in. in length. GANOIDS •*95. Sturgeon. Acipemer sturio, Linn. Dr. John Lowe mentions a specimen taken off the Suffolk coast which was 12 ft. 2 in. long and weighed only 156 lb. In Mr. Hele's little book on Aldeburgh he writes ' Mr. G. T. Rope of Blax- hall,Tunstall, has furnished the following interest- ing particulars concerning the capture of a sturgeon many years ago. The incident is well remem- bered by his father, now (1870) in his 90th year. The fish was taken in the river Aide at Rendham, according to Mr. Rope senior between the years 1836 and 1840. The capture occurred on the property of the grandfather of the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield of Guestling Rectory near Hastings, and that gentleman in a letter to Mr. Rope gives the following account of the event : — " There had been a flood, but the water had gone down, so that the sturgeon was left in a hole of the river and could not get away. A boy who had been sent from the Grove, Glenham, where my grand- father lived, to the farm at Rendham, saw as he supposed a pig in the river. He therefore told them at the farm what he had seen. The head man at once went with a halter to pull the pig out and so captured the sturgeon. It was a very fine one and was exhibited at Saxmundham. I think the sturgeon must have been taken some time before 1835."* 170
