DECEMBER, 1881. 105 



ashore on Loch Linnhe side, and on one occasion he 

 witnessed them thus thrown on the rocks by the assault 

 of a great shoal of saithe. The fish not only forced them 

 out of the water but actually risked being stranded them- 

 selves, so far inwards did they pick the herring off the 

 rocks. Among these small fry were a good many of a 

 larger size the size of garvies that went by the name 

 of Garavack or Garvock, or " or big little ones " as our 

 informer sought to explain. What more particularly 

 interested us was his account of the grey crows hastening 

 to the prey, and hurrying off to the hills with several of 

 the larger ones in their beaks, not to devour but to hide, 

 returning to supply their immediate wants. So that if 

 this keenest of crows has not yet arrived at salting herring, 

 they have, at least, got the length of storing gannes. 



These saithe, that prey upon the herring in their 

 hobledehoyhood, equally stick by them in their maturity, 

 as the multitude of coal-fish or steinlock the full grown 

 saithe that follow herring shoals and devour the herring 

 in myriads, is almost incredible. We have heard of one 

 man in Barra who declared he could catch a ton weight 

 of them at a spell, if his hands could stand the strain of 

 the line ; and we have seen 1 5 full-grown herring taken 

 out of one of them ! Yet with all their delicate feeding, 

 and what more delicate feeding than herring for all 

 classes of fish ? the coal fish is one of the coarsest and 

 least oily that comes out of the water. Black, as its 

 name implies, large flaked, and fibrous, it is a standing 

 protest against the theory that you can possibly feed a 

 coarse nature into a fine one. 



Talk of desolate homes ! Just fancy the poor sand 

 martins returning to their cliffs at Shian, once more to 

 occupy the nests in their sandy faces. All gone at a 



