FATHER LASHER, ETC. 89 



FATHER LASHER, LONG-SPINED COT- 

 TUS, LUCKY PROACH OF SCOT- 

 LAND, GORLUB OF DEVON. 



Cotlus lubalis. 

 Scorpius. 



This fish is easily recognised by the head being 

 well armed with long spines, but it seldom mea- 

 sures more than from six to ten inches on our 

 own coasts. The cottus is decidedly forbidding in 

 appearance; yet in Greenland, where the fish at- 

 tains a much larger size, it forms the principal food 

 of the natives, and when made into soup is said 

 to be pleasant as well as nutritive. During the 

 greater part of the year it is taken all around our 

 own coasts from Cornwall to the Orkneys, and is 

 left by the tide in small ponds among the rocks ; 

 it is almost always taken by the men employed 

 in catching prawns, when its lively motion is 

 annoying from the danger of pricking the fingers 

 when catching at its tail for the purpose of ejecting 

 the interloper from the net; it is not eaten on 

 our coasts, being looked upon as useless even for 

 bait, although the Dutch prefer it to most others 



