Natural History of the Isiand of Rathlin. 67 
From Rathlin, the coal-fish after being salted, was exported in very considerable 
numbers; and the quantity of oil collected during the summer season, served the in- 
habitants for lighting their lamps during winter. 
At Drainsbay, near Larne, in 1810, 456 fishes of this species, supposed to weigh 
upwards of five tons, were captured by a single boat in one night. The coal-fish, in 
Scotland is, according to my friend Dr. Neill, called the sillock, till it attains the 
length of five inches; and the pittock, when it measures twelve or fourteen inches. 
Lyrue or Potrack. (Gadus pollachus.) The lythe is caught in summer in the 
deep pools, which, from the craggy nature of the coasts, are very numerous. They 
are sometimes caught so large, as to weigh seven pounds. The bait used in Raghery 
is crab. 
Line ( Gadus molva) is not an uncommon visitor of Rathlin ; but few are captured 
in comparison to the number frequenting the coasts. 
Fatner-Lasner. (Cottus scorpius.) This fish is found in the small pools regu- 
larly left by the ebbing tide. : 
Pratse (Pleuronectes platessa) is generally caught on the long line, particularly on 
the eastern coast towards the great cod-bank already alluded to. 
‘Sore. (Pleuronectes solea.) Occasionally caught with the plaise. 
Tursot. (Pleuronectes maximus.) This delicate fish is not unfrequently taken 
near the island; and specimens have been obtained, weighing twenty pounds. 
Wrasse. (Labrus tinca,) and the Battan-wrasse. (Labrus ballanus.) Both 
indiscriminately called by the islanders, murrans, are caught in considerable numbers 
in Raghery. The capture of these fish occupies a great proportion of the boys on 
the island—as on fine days, almost every projecting point of rock in some parts of the 
island contains one or two fishers. The bait principally used is crab. I could scarcely 
persuade some of them that the hooks were too large in comparison with the size of 
the fishes’ mouths ; and their bait was nibbled away almost as fast as it was put on, in 
consequence of the disproportion of the hook to the fish’s mouth. 
The wrasse is easily caught, but not much esteemed, their flesh being soft and 
watery, and the bones small and numerous. ‘They are found on all the rocky parts of 
the coast in the county of Antrim, frequenting deep wracky holes, where, from the 
brilliancy of their colour, on a clear day they may be seen to a considerable depth. 
Suort-sPINED STICKLEBACK. (Gasterosteus brachycentrus.) This species of 
stickleback, first added to the British fauna by William Thompson, Esq. Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Belfast Natural History Society, and described and figured in “ Yarrell’s 
British Fishes,” I found the only species of three-spined stickleback inhabiting Rathlin. 
It must be noticed as a remarkable fact, that, of all the species of three-spined stickle- 
back, common to England and Scotland, none should be found in Treland, while in 
their place we have a truly continental species, the only inhabitant of our Irish lakes 
and rivers. The specimens which 1 obtained in Raghery were all smaller than those 
