MALAC0PTERYGT1 SUBBRACHIATI. 515 



the sea-shores, and the mouths of rivers, especially in the 

 Baltic Sea, and the North Atlantic Ocean. It even penetrates 

 into rivers, and comes pretty high into those of our country. 



It is easily accustomed to live in all kinds of water, and as 

 by enclosing it in proper vessels, it can be transported alive 

 to a considerable distance from its ordinary sojourn, it has 

 been naturalized and multiplied in many ponds in Friezland. 



The goodness of its flesh, the flavour of which in general 

 is much inferior to that of the plaice, varies according to the 

 season of the year in which it is taken, according to the food 

 which it can obtain, and according to the country which it 

 inhabits. It is said, for instance, to be better in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Memel than in the other parts of the Baltic, and 

 that the flesh of individuals taken in fresh-water, is softer and 

 less savoury than that of the flounders of the sea. It is also 

 agreed that this fish is larger and more fleshy in the fine 

 season than at any other time. 



Of Rhombus, the Rhombus maximus, or turhot, is a well 

 known and most celebrated fish. It arrives at very large 

 dimensions. Some have been seen five or six feet long, and 

 on the coast both of England and France, it often weighs 

 twenty-five or thirty pounds. Rondelet, indeed, tells us that 

 he has seen the turbot five cubits in length, four in breadth, 

 and a foot in thickness. 



It frequents the Northern Ocean, the Baltic, and the Me- 

 diterranean, and is generally very abundant in those tracts 

 which it inhabits. 



It feeds on small fish, Crustacea, worms, &c, and is very 

 voracious. It is extremely cunning in the pursuit of its prey, 

 which leads it to sojourn near the mouths of rivers, or at the 

 entrance of the ponds which communicate with the sea, places 

 which habitually abound in small aquatic animals, and are 

 filled with a thick and unctuous mud, in which it sinks. 



Notwithstanding its extreme voracity, this fish very seldom 



Ll2 



