CH. VI.] FISH OFF THE SCOTCH COAST. 83 
ages); the Sea-bream (Scoticé, on West coast, 
“Silver Haddie,”) strong in the water, brilliant of 
eye, and hard to handle; the Skate, whose face 
when turned on his back presents a most ludicrous 
resemblance to that of a crying child; and the 
hideous Sea Devil, all mouth and fins, looking 
like a cross between a toad and a night-jar. Spe- 
cimens of rarer fishes are too occasionally met 
with. Last year, for instance, I took out of a 
Lobster-trap a Three-bearded Rockling, as men- 
tioned below (page 86), and this year (1859)—on 
a long line—one of that remarkable and fantastic 
looking species, the Gemmous Dragonet, seven 
inches in length. 
As you leave the shelter of the lochs, and stand 
out farther into the open sea, the varieties of fish 
which you will bring up become more largely in- 
creased, and commonly embrace Haddock, Tusk, 
Ling, Conger-eels, and Nurse (“Small Spotted Dog- 
fish,” Yarrell), (though the three latter also often 
used to denote one growth of the Coal-fish, and Saithe an- 
other, yet in some places the half-grown fish are called Saithe 
and the full-grown ones Sillock, &c., whilst in others, and more 
generally, the reverse is the case. As compared with Salmon 
the three growths of Cuddy, Sillock or Stenlock, and Saithe, 
would very nearly, in weight as in other points, correspond to 
Salmon-fry, Grilse, and Salmon. 
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