178 LOCH C RERAN. 



We described the young plaice as being numerous in 

 the little pools of the foreshore, and remarked upon the 

 extreme difficulty of discovering them except from their 

 own movements. They sink into the mud until nothing 

 but the two minute eyes are out, with the contour of the 

 head shown, just as in the case of the full-grown flounder 

 kind ; and even in their case it demands an experienced 

 eye to note the whereabouts of a flounder when spearing 

 them from a boat overhead. It has often been a source 

 of wonder to us how any of the very young of certain 

 fishes escape their many enemies ; but we suspect even 

 heavier gaps are made in their ranks further on, when 

 they are more worthy the attention of the water-fowl, for 

 it is really wonderful what large flat fish a duck itself will 

 swallow with apparent satisfaction. At the same time 

 we do not doubt that our ducks are making havoc among 

 these little fellows even now, as they seem to have the 

 faculty of scooping along with their bills among the mud, 

 allowing the mud and water to escape at the sides, and 

 swallowing what is appetising, in place of having to pick 

 up each minute article separately, like a common fowl. 

 It was clear that, despite their number, they had been 

 sadly thinned in the still earlier stages, and yet no other 

 fish were about at that time ; so we resolved to hunt 

 further out, if perchance among the boulders of the 

 rougher bordering ground their enemies had found shelter. 

 As the edge of the furthest ebb was reached, we kept a 

 sharper look-out, and were repaid by glimpses of little 

 black specs, like very minute tadpoles, that cut into the 

 seaweed at the approach of our shadow. Soon one, then 

 another, delicately-transparent gobies appeared, as they 

 flitted to another portion of the ground, where they were 

 almost equally hidden with the young plaice, so closely 



