THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 11 



Amidst this magnificent but, to the uninitiated, 

 chaotic panorama, we have placed the occupant of 

 the picturesque fishing-boat, and will suppose him 

 a keen sportsman just lapsing into the naturalist. 

 Anxious for rare specimens, but totally bewildered, 

 he turns helplessly to the boatmen, who overpower 

 him, as the fowl dash past, with the coast slang 

 nicknames Marrots, Tommie Nories, Nettle- 

 ducks, Coll-the-caunle-wicks, Letter-o'-marques, 

 &c. until, perhaps, the day closes with a boat- 

 load of trash, and only some distant random 

 chances at the wilder, rarer, or more gorgeous, 

 treasures of the deep. 



How vastly intensified in interest does this 

 living sea become to the keen eye of an experienced 

 sportsman, who is at the same time an accomplished 

 naturalist. Not only does he know each kind and 

 genus by book, but from an intimate knowledge 

 of their habits and manners, and a quick eye kept 

 in constant practice, can distinguish every variety 

 at distances which (to a novice) appear impossible. 

 He scans the sea with his telescope, detects at a 

 glance the specimens he is in search of, and imme- 

 diately decides upon the safest approach that 



