TURBOT. 159 



It is requisite to successful fishery for Turbots with a line 

 that the bait shall be newly killed; and a living bait is still 

 more attractive, for this fish is not a little ravenous, and if 

 it chance to escajje from the hook, it ^^ill again and again 

 encounter the same risk. On one occasion a Grey Gurnard 

 had swallowed the bait, when it was itself seized by a Turbot, 

 which, in passing it into its stomach, Lead foremost, suffered 

 the mischance of having the spines of its prey to become fixed 

 in its gullet, so that both of these fishes were drawn up 

 together. Crabs and shell-fish also form part of its food, and 

 indeed it appears that little which has life is rejected. 



The trawl in the west and south of England is extensively 

 used for the taking of Turbots, as it is indeed for obtaining 

 every sort of fish Cnat falls within the sweep of its net; but 

 more especially it is successful for those of the Pleuronectidoi. 

 But the fishes are bruised, and for the most part greatly 

 injured in this method of fishing, as may be imagined, when 

 we call to mind that they are dragged along on the ground 

 for a considerable distance, amidst an accumulation of whatever 

 heavy substances may come in the way. This fish is retentive 

 of life, so that it will remain a whole day alive after being 

 caught; and yet when brought to Billingsgate they are sometimes 

 so much decayed as to be unfit for food. 



By an Act of Parliament, (1st. George I., C. 28,) a Turbot 

 is forbidden to be sold when under the length of sixteen 

 inches. Brill or Pearl fourteen inches. Codling twelve. Whiting 

 six, Bass and Mullet twelve. Sole eight, Plaise or Dab six. 

 Flounder seven; but there is no penalty for catching them of 

 less size than is here specified, and consequently the prohibition 

 itself affords no advantage towards what appears to have been 

 intended by it. 



The breadth of the body of this fish is contained once and 

 three fifths in the whole length, excluding the tail fin; and 

 consequently it is wider proportionally than any other of the 

 British flatfishes, excejDt those much smaller species the Topknots ; 

 and from this greater breadth and more rounded form it has 

 received in Scotland the name of Bannock, or Cake Fluke. 

 The gape is wide, opening obliquely downward, with a 

 mystache which reaches opposite the anterior eye; the eyes 

 separate, the lowermost a little in advance; a flat projecting 



