190 



POLE. 



CRAIGFLUKE. 



Pleuronectes cynoglossiis, Linn^us. 



Pleuronecte pole, Lacepede. 



Flatessa pola, Cuvieu. Paunell; Memoirs of 



Wernerian Society, vol. vii. 

 " " Yahrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 315. 



Pleuronectes cynoglossus, Gunther; Cat. Br. Museum, vol. iv, 



p. 448. 



The Pole is a fish of the Arctic Sea, in which direction it is 

 found so far north as Greenland, where, according to Lacepede, 

 in winter it keeps in the deeper situations which border 

 on the shore; but this author also remarks that it is sometimes 

 met with on the coasts of Belgium. In the British Islands it 

 has been accounted amongst the rarest of flatfishes, so that 

 when an example has fallen into the hands of a naturalist it 

 has been thought worthy of special notice; and accordingly it 

 is on record that some have been obtained on the coasts of 

 Scotland, where this fish has been occasionally mistaken for the 

 younger condition of the Holibut, with which, as well in 

 some of its habits, and some degree of appearance, it possesses 

 a general likeness. But there is reason to believe that it is 

 to be ascribed rather to its jjlaccs of resort, which are among 

 rocks, or in stony ground where ordinary nets cannot be used, 

 than to its absolute scarcity, that it is not more frequently 

 taken with us, since it has been caught, at rare intervals, 

 round the British coast, even in the West of Cornwall. But 

 in its greatest abundance it appears to be local, as well 

 perhaps, as migratory; and ]\Ir. Thompson informs us that at 

 times he has known it to be common on the east border of 



