328 PLEURONECTID.E. 



quantities by the Dutch, and was a great favourite with them 

 as baits for Turbot, on account of the facility with which they 

 could be kept alive while the boats were at sea, and com- 

 bining bright silvery colour with great power of resisting the 

 usual effect of mutilation. The principal food of the Turbot 

 is small fish, Crustacea, and mollusca. It spawns about Au- 

 gust, but rapidly recovers its condition and firmness. 



Turbot are recorded as having been taken on the south 

 coast of Ireland ; I have seen one that was caught on the 

 coast of Londonderry in the north : and this valuable species 

 occurs also at many intermediate localities. 



" The Turbot was known to the Athenians, and has been 

 ever since a worthy object of gastronomical worship." The 

 most common size varies from five to ten pounds' 1 weight ; 

 occasionally this fish attains to twenty pounds, and some- 

 times thirty pounds. Mr. Couch notices, in his MS. a record 

 of one taken in the year 1730, at Cawsand, near Plymouth, 

 which weighed seventy pounds. Rondeletius states that he 

 had seen a Turbot five cubits in length, four in breadth, and 

 a foot in thickness. The Turbot is considered to have been 

 the Rhombus of the ancient Romans, of which a specimen of 

 enormous size is said to have been taken in the reign of Do- 

 mitian, who ordained a Senalus Consultum to devise the best 

 mode of bringing it to table. Juven. Sat. IV. 



" No vessel they find fit to hold such a fish, 

 And the senate 's convoked to decree a new dish." 



Sir Thomas Browne seems to have been quite aware of the 

 good qualities of Turbot and Brill as compared to Plaice, 

 Flounders, and Dabs ; he says 



" Of wry-mouthed fish, give me the left side black ; 

 Except the Sole, which hath the daintiest smack." 



Yet a Plaice, scored and fried, is a good fish, and much better 

 than when boiled. 



