In the summer months, for some years prior to 1887, very large quantities ofHake (Merluccius vulgaris) had been caught by trawlers beyond the entrance of the Bristol Channel, and landed at Plymouth. Knowing that such masses of hungry creatures would not be found continuously in any given locality without a heavy balance of smaller fish being in their neighbourhood as food for these hakes, I became anxious to know what these smaller fish were, and throughout the summer of 1888 I tried more than once to get at them through our fishermen, but failed.

In July, 1889, I desired my son Howard to visit the Plymouth Barbican, and notice the gutting of the hakes there and tell me the result. His report was that they had been feeding on small whiting (Gadus merlangus), and that single hakes had as many as ten whiting in their stomachs. I told him that I doubted if these small fish were whiting, and asked him to send the specimens at once, as I expected them to be the poutasson(Gadus poutassou) of Couch. I had recently had specimens of this fish brought me from thirty miles west of the Scilly Isles.

About a week afterwards my son sent me.seven of these little ones taken from the stomach of a pollack(Gadus pollachius) which had been caught in a trawl forty miles north-west of St. Ives. On giving them my attention, I was surprised to find they were not the poutassou nor any other Gadus I was acquainted with.