AUGUST, 1882. 203 



the bunches of hazels having caught what sun was about 

 and tinted their cheeks therewith. 



A plague in the shape of midges, so we did not stop 

 to examine the results of our dredging, but fled ignom- 

 iniously from the field. That is the reason that little fish 

 happened to be left stranded on the bottom of the boat, 

 without the slightest attention being paid to it, although 

 a glance is sufficient to assure us we have not taken any 

 of his kind hitherto in Loch Creran. We have often 

 wondered at the absence of weever fish, and here at last 

 is a young specimen, about zin. long, of the larger weever, 

 Trachinns draco, with long dorsal and anal fins, and the 

 black fin over the head in which the dangerous weapon 

 is concealed that procures for it the name of sting-bull. 

 These fishes, when more mature, are really most venomous 

 customers, and the wound they inflict is very poisonous. 

 As they bury themselves in the sand with the sting out, 

 naked feet most frequently are apprised of their truculent 

 presence. Although said to be not uncommon on the 

 Scottish coast, we have only once known of their capture 

 before, over a lengthened experience of Scottish sea-fish- 

 ing. Does any reader know of their frequenting the 

 coast elsewhere ? 



AUGUST, 1882. 



That we behaved like a fool we acknowledge, but we 

 have been quite unable to decide wherein our excessive 

 folly lay ! To stand, hat in hand, at a corner of Buchanan 

 Street, in the busiest part of the day, and make half-furtive 

 and consequently abortive attempts with this instrument 

 to capture the object of our attention, is so self-evidently 

 foolish to you that you cannot understand our difficulty. 



