382 FISHES OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 



also eat its roe after having reduced it, by boiling, to a pulp. 

 It is a fish well known along most of the British shores ; 

 but is found less frequent towards the south. On the west 

 coast of Scotland, sometimes as many as two dozen are 

 taken in the salmon-nets at almost every tide, principally 

 in the month of June, when they seek the sandy ground to 

 deposit their spawn. The fishermen boil them down with 

 vegetables for their pigs, and consider them to be fattening 

 food. The flesh when cooked, is soft and very rich, and is 

 considered by some of the inhabitants of Edinburgh as a 

 luxury ; but there are few stomachs with which it agrees, 

 in consequence of its oily nature. The males are considered 

 the best for the table. 



The Lump Fish or Padle, as it is named in Scotland, is 

 often taken in the Firth of Forth in the salmon-nets at Mus- 

 selburgh and Queensferry, generally about the month of 

 June, and entirely disappears after the month of August. 

 It seldom takes a bait ; its food consists of marine worms 

 and small fish, and as its intestinal canal is longer than that 

 of most other fishes, it is well calculated to sustain hunger 

 for a considerable time. In the winter season it conceals 

 itself under rocks, or attached to their base by means of its 

 ventral disk, with which it adheres with considerable force. 

 Pennant, on throwing one of these fishes into a pail of water, 

 found it adhered so firmly to the bottom, that on taking it by 

 the tail the whole vessel was lifted, though it held some gallons. 

 From its being a heavy inactive fish, and possessing but few 

 or no means of defence, it readily becomes the prey of seals, 

 squali, and other voracious inhabitants of the sea. 



