CH. VI.] CRUEL REVENGE LOBSTERS. 85 



three of these beasts with their teeth fast into a 

 Cod which he had hooked, and of another, where 

 a man, before taking in a Cod which he had 

 brought to the surface, pulled out with his hand 

 no less than nine in succession, as they endea- 

 voured to seize it. An attempt was made to utilise 

 the Dog-fish, by extracting oil from them. They 

 were however, from their numbers, half starved, and 

 so miserably poor that it was a complete failure. 



It can hardly be wondered that Dog-fish are 

 universally objects of detestation to fishermen, by 

 whom no mercy is shewn them, and who some- 

 times indeed wreak their vengeance on them in 

 very cruel ways, such for instance as by sticking 

 corks on their dorsal spines, when, being unable 

 to descend, the poor wretches must miserably end 

 their days upon the surface, unless released from 

 their sufferings by a passing Gull. I have seen, 

 when a boy, eight or ten of them tied along a 

 stick, and thus sent adrift together. 



Besides the fish which I have mentioned as 

 inhabiting the Scotch sea-lochs, in some of them, 

 and particularly those of some of the Western 

 Islands, Lobsters are numerous, and run to a great 

 size. For these some friends and I, whilst in 

 shooting quarters by one of these lochs, utilised 



