SKATES. 85 



by wliat is called the boat share, which commonly amounts to 

 a fifth part of the fish sold in the market: for the remainder 

 he has a common share with his men. But other fishes will 

 come to the hook besides those which find a place at fashionable 

 tables, or the public are accustomed to buy, and which, 

 indeed, are intrinsically as valuable as any which have a ready 

 sale. The Grey Gurnard, Scad, Comber, Power, the Wrasses, 

 Dogfish, Rays, and Skates, are in this class, and by the fish- 

 ermen they are collectively known by the name of rabble-fish, 

 as being rejected from the market; and they consequently fall to 

 the lot of the fishermen themselves, who take them for the 

 subsistence of their families, without deducting any portion 

 for boat share. The Skate is the largest, and. on the whole, 

 the most important of these rejected fishes, and the Saxon 

 word Skitan, to reject, is expressive of the fact of its being 

 so. The same word is the parent of several expressions still 

 in common use, as significant of being thrown out, aside, or 

 rejected; such as to scout an opinion, a scout thrown out from 

 an army to obtain intelligence, and scatter, to disperse widely 

 abroad. In the West of England a skit is a lampoon thrown 

 out at random against anyone who may choose to take it up. 

 Ray may be derived from the word rcoh, which signifies 

 rousfh, and is indeed the ancient form of that word. In its 

 simple form it is applied to the Common Thornback, which 

 is the most valued of the tribe. 



