The Skate. 423 



deposited by the female Skate are very similar to those 

 laid by the shark, being in the shape of a square bag, 

 with two horns at each end as here represented. 



In this horny case the embryo is contained, and grows 

 till it has acquired strength enough to burst through its 

 prison. The colour of the bag is maroon, and the sub- 

 stance like thin brown parchment or leather. The 

 female begins to drop these singly in the month of May, 

 and continues to do so for several months, to the num- 

 ber of two or three hundred. In some parts of Cum- 

 berland they are called, by the common people, Skate- 

 barrows, on account of their resemblance to the barrows 

 which are carried by two men, and used for the convey- 

 ance of goods, &c. 



The Skate sometimes attains a very large size. Wil- 

 loughby speaks of one so huge that it wouM have served 

 one hundred and twenty men for dinner. Some natural- 

 ists are of opinion that these fishes are the largest in- 

 habitants of the deep, and that only the smallest of them 

 come near the surface of the water, the biggest remain 

 ing flat at the bottom of the sea, where an unfathomable 

 deep secures them against the wiles of man. 



Nine species of the Skate or Ray are found on the 

 British coasts. 



