516 SUPPLEMENT ON 



attacks anything but living prey, or what is quite fresh; the 

 fishermen, therefore, generally prefer for taking it, to join to 

 the pieces of cod and herrings with which they bait their 

 lines some small fish still alive. 



It is seldom fished for with the net, long lines, baited in 

 the mode just mentioned, being preferred. These lines are 

 sometimes prodigiously long. 



The flesh of the turbot is in great request, in consequence 

 of its exquisite flavour, on which account the French vulgarly 

 call it water or sea-pheasant. It is white, fat, flaky, and 

 delicate. It has exercised the skill and ingenuity of the 

 great professors of gastronomy, in a variety of culinary pre- 

 parations, from the time of Apicius down to that of Ude and 

 Kitchiner. 



The Romans entertained a profound respect for the turbot, 

 as the two following passages from Horace prove. 



Cum passeris, atque 



Ingustata mihi porrexerit ilia rhombi. 



Esuriens fastidit omnia, pneter 



Pavonem, rhombumque. 



The Pleuronectes Rhombus, or R. barbatus, (the brill,) is 

 common in the North Atlantic as well as in the Mediterranean. 

 It habitually frequents the French coasts, but is still more 

 plentiful in those of Sardinia, and also, according to Adanson, 

 round the Azores. It sometimes penetrates into rivers, and 

 more particularly into the Elbe. 



This fish grows to a very considerable size, and is the one 

 thus spoken of by Martial : 



Quamvis lata gerat patella rhombum, 

 Rbombus tamen est latior patella. 



It was also an enormous individual of this species which 

 was presented to Domitian, on which important occasion he 



