MR. BUCKLAND'S LOG-BOOK.*
THERE is very little, we are sorry to say, to justify the first part of the title which Mr. Buckland gives to his book. Some of the papers have to do, it is true, with fish. Mr. Buckland visited, for instance, the Great Grimsby Docks, and heard the experiences of a North-Sea trawler ; he tells us about the Brighton Aquarium, and gossips elsewhere about matters aquatic ; but of angling experiences, which we take to be the natural contents of "the • Log-Book of a Fisherman and Zoologist. By Frank Buckland., M.A. London: Chapman and Hall. 1875. log-book of a fisherman," he has nothing to relate. Doubtless, he pleases a larger public with his zoology. As to angling, indeed, we are not sure whether the followers of that art will not be forced, under pressure of the tu quoque from the vivisectionists, to be as silent about their sport as the enthusiasts of cock- fighting are—Admiral Rous excepted—about theirs. Of the quasi-piscatorial articles, we found that on "Netting the Fish in the Serpentine " especially interesting. Who does not recognise the delight of dragging a pond? You are going to solve a mystery. There is no knowing what monsters you may not pullout of those inscrutable depths. About the Serpentine there was something specially attractive. Legends of fish of most exceptional size were attached to it. It was here that, according to Pennant, the largest perch on record, a monster weighing 9 lb., was caught. And generations of London anglers had essayed their skill in its waters, with but indifferent success. The result of the netting was, we are bound to say, exceedingly disappointing. In the first place, but one perch was found, and this was deformed. "His upper jaw," says Mr. Buckland. "was rounded into a knob like an apple, and his deformed face looked like a pantomime- mask." Neither was there a single pike. Pike and perch there once were in the water, for the present writer remembers both kinds being caught by a remarkably skilful angler, who used to haunt the place some thirty years ago. To the absence of these predatory fish Mr. Buckland attributes the curious fact that there were no fish of medium size in the lake. There were a few big ones, relics of a past generation, and cart-loads of small ones, de- generate scions of a race which had lost the improving influence of "natural selection." Again, there were no eels, except one veteran weighing 6 lb., who, we may mention by the way, avenged his death by making the taxidermist who stuffed him and took the flesh as his perquisite exceedingly ill. "An old boatman," writes Mr. Buckland, "told me he thought the lime had killed all the eels," and certainly, to fall back again on personal recollections, we remember seeing the boatmen taking out bushels of eels in a morning in the " wheels " which they had put down over- night. Again, there were no carp, only "considerable quantities of some small Prussian carp, and also a fair number of crucian carp." We must plead ignorance as to the precise nature of a "crucian " carp, but when we read that the largest of these weighed 1 lb. 9 oz., we cannot identify them with the carp which we have ourselves seen taken from the water. The angler of whom mention has been made before was in the habit of catching much larger fish than these. This man, as we have said before, was singularly successful. Some of our readers may be interested in knowing one of the artifices to which he, at least, attached much importance. He had shot a heron at the Serpentine, itself a feat almost incredible to those who do not know what strange birds may be seen in London by those who watch for them. The legs of this bird he boiled down, and used the product for flavouring his paste. The recipe is, we believe, a very old one, but for obvious reasons very seldom tried. The largest fish taken in the nets were some bream, the biggest weighing 5 lbs., and measuring 22 in. in length and 5 in. in depth. But the large bream were only five in number, while there were shoals of small ones, no bigger than the palm of the hand. The present writer caught fish of half-a-pound weight in years past. There were about 300 good-sized roach, varying from lb. to 2 lbs. The bulk of the capture consisted of small roach from two to four inches long. When we add that there were "four very fat and very red gold-fish," one very large gudgeon, one small trout, and innumerable sticklebacks, the tale is complete.
Fish-lore of a more serious and practical kind may be found in the paper on Trawling. The conclusion to which Mr. Buckland comes is, "that there should be a close-time for the'fish within the three-mile limit during April, May, and June." A similar close-time has been established in the Thames, almost entirely in the interest of sport, as river-fish scarcely form an appreciable item in the food of the people. It will be strange if the protection could not be extended to so important an article as sea-fish. How important it is, may be judged from the fact that from Grimsby alone 36,300 tons of fish are sent to inland markets in the course of the year. The estimated value is 1544,500. Taking 215 per ton as the basis of the calculation, we get a price of a trifle more than three-halfpence per pound. Is there any other article of food in which there is so enormous a difference between the wholesale and the retail price ? We can- not help thinking that the public are unfairly dealt with in this matter. It is a fact that codfish of the best qnality is sold in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire towns at a price ranging between 2d. and 4d. per pound. Why should Londoners pay between 8d. and is.? We may supplement Mr. Buckland's information about the North-Sea fishing by a curious fact which has conic within the writer's observation, and which illustrates the strange variety of industries which are pursued in this country. All through the winter and early spring, there is a constant supply of sand-eels from theCheshire and Lancashire coasts, carried across England to serve as bait for the cod-fishers. They are carried in large vessels not unlike those used for the transport of milk, and the men in charge of them, who are Norwegians, continue to aerate the water, while the train is not in motion, by perpetually stirring it up.
Out of the vast variety of Mr. Buckland's zoological experiences it is difficult to make a selection. He is always the same shrewd and entertaining observer, and always free from any suspicion of exaggeration. He relates his adventures with absolute fidelity ; does not hesitate to tell us when he fails, and contrives that we should still learn just as much about his subject as if he had been successful. He describes a day's "snaking," for instance, with Mr. Higford Burr, at Aldermaston. The party does not manage to draw a single snake, yet the reader knows a good deal about snakes before the end of the chapter. This, indeed, is a very happy specimen of Mr. Buckland's style. He takes occasion to give some comments on Virgil, and makes us wish that he would take up this subject of the "natural history of the ancients" in regular fashion. And happening to catch a lizard, which, after the manner of the lizard kind, sheds its tail in his hand, he introduces an admirably characteristic specimen of American humour. A quack applied some very potent healing ointment to the stump where a dog's tail had been cut off. The tail grew again. He then applied it to the severed tail, and lo ! a new dog grew to it. But we might go on quoting our author for ever. It must suffice to indicate a few notable things. Artists should read his good-humoured criticisms on their shortcomings in the matter of natural history. The Trafalgar lions, we see, do not escape criticism. They should not have their paws stretched out straight, an attitude which we may suppose Sir Edwin to have borrowed from his favourite stag- hounds. "Cats and lions (lima are nothing but big cats) turn their paws inward when lying down quiet." Again, our present Government, which is so admirably successful in legislation, might take a hint from another chapter. Scotland has scarcely had its share of attention,—has had little, in fact, done for it except having its Church turned upside down. Among the measures announced in the next "Speech from the Throne" might be a Bill for preserving Scotch pearls, which, famous since the days of Cxsar, are now, it seems, in danger of becoming extinct. As far as we can learn from Mr. Buckland, legislation must take the form of an enactment forbidding the cattle to pass over the mussel-bearing streams by the bridges which have been recently erected. They used, it seems, to walk through the water, and to trample the mussels in their way. The mussels when injured grew pearls. Left alone, they are barren. But would it be justi- fiable? Probably the mussels are happier as they are. What Tacitus wrote about these same Scotch pearls might, mulatis mutandis, still apply, "Ego facilius crediderim naturam margaritis deesse quam nobis avaritiam." The chapter on "The Greenland Seal Fisheries," where, again, a close-time is recommended, and another, of a most amusing kind, on the author's monkeys, are among the best things in the book. Of this, with many thanks to the author for much entertainment, we shall now take leave. Our readers shall have a parting surprise from it. In a battle between a scorpion and a mouse, which combatant would they be inclined to back? And would they be "surprised to hear" that the mouse not only killed the scorpion, but eat him ?
Previous page
