A strategy of edge-searching in a graph, useful to subgraph listing problems, is introduced. It gives 4 algorithms (requiring linear space) for listing all triangles and quadrangles in G in O(a(G)m) time (for planar graphs both run in linear time), all subgraphs of order 1 in \(O(\ell a(G)^{\ell -2})\) time and all cliques in O(a(G)m) time per clique (m is the number of edges of G, a(G) its arboricity). Further, an upper bound on a(G) is given: a(G)\(\leq \lceil (2m+n)^{1/2}/2\rceil\), where n is the number of vertices of G.