The fishermen have cut off the wings of the large skates and taken out the bulky livers of 

 the largest rays. The deck is rapidly becoming empty. The valuable flat-fishes (pleuronectids) 

 have still to be sorted. Grunts of satisfaction from the crew show that there are some turbot 

 (Rhombus maximus) and several brill (R. laevis). These are fine creatures with a thick rounded 

 body bearing the eyes on the left side. They can camouflage themselves so well that on a gravel 

 bottom or on a black-dotted sand, these large fishes can escape notice. The turbot of our regions 

 can reach a length of 3 feet and beyond, while the brill grows little more than 28 i inches long. 

 The young fishes enter the warmer waters of the seaweeds along sandy beaches, those escaping 

 systematic destruction from shrimp trawling descending to 15 fathoms and deeper. Growth 

 is slow and after about 5 years a turbot measures 8 to 9i inches. The females contain more than 

 li) million eggs but this prodigious fecundity hardly compensates for the great destruction 

 of the immature fishes. At night- time, turbot and brill take off in the vertical plane to swim 

 rapidly after all the fishes within their reach, for they are very voracious. They fetch high 

 prices on the markets. 



Close by them at the edge of the continental shelf lives a '"poor" relative, the megrim, 

 (Zeugopteriis inegasloina). The deck of the trawler is littered with their oblong bodies, the 

 coloured sides always looking partly skinned, for the scales fall out very easily. The males, 

 as J. Furnestin has pointed out, differ from the females in their deeper bodies, shorter heads 

 and longer pectoral fins. They range from 15 J to 23 J inches in length. There are local races 

 distinguished by the number of vertebrae, and the megrim of the Atlantic differ from those of 

 the North Sea. They are fishes with a mediocre kind of flesh, but have finally found a place on 

 the French market. 



The true soles (Solea solea) are rather scarce on the Great Sole Bank and the fishermen of 

 our trawler will not often count more than a dozen in one haul. On the other hand, the varie- 

 gated soles (Solea (Microchirus) variegata) are abundant, being mixed with the megrims, with 

 which they live on muddy grounds. They are small fishes which do not exceed a length of 

 8 inches and have a bluish colouration with brown marblings. "Cats' tongues", as they are 

 called in the west of France, have a delicate and justly appreciated flesh, but they do not reach the 

 Paris market. 



The fish sorting is finished and all the catch is stowed in the hold. The fishermen carelessly 

 gather up spiny-dogfish, dog-fish, whiting-pout and other unimportant fishes. Only purple 

 sea-urchins (Spaiangiis piirpiireusj, which swarm on the bottom of the Great Sole Bank, now 

 remain on the muddy deck. All this debris is hosed and swabbed into the sea. Another trawl 

 tow is ended and in a few minutes a new flood of fishes will pour onto the fore-deck. For six to 

 eight hours without a break the catches will be mounting up in the hold. Then the ship will 

 head back for La Rochelle, where the owner, having been informed by radio, impatiently awaits 

 her arrival. 



Aboard the little craft. 



Long ago, when I was a child and until the 1914 war, the coming and going of the sardine 

 fleet during the summer gave the ports of southern Brittany a most picturesque appearance. 

 The great long-boats left at dawn when the rays of the rising sun shone pink or bronze on their 

 brown or blue triple sails. Throughout the day they were silhouetted like tiny cut-outs against 

 the horizon; then towards evening they raced back to port to make sure of the first sale. The 

 old seamen in their blue berets and catechu-tanned clothes, some still wearing a Newgate frill 

 beard and small gold earrings, foHowed these manoeuvres and were not backward with their 

 criticisms. The women from Douarnenez or Concarneau with their round caps and those 

 from Pont I'Abbe in lace mitres impatiently awaited the stroke of the bell calling the factory 

 hands to work. From the factories there wafted a rancid smell of frying oil. The fishing 

 boats were anchored in the port with sails furled and masts festooned with blue nets. 



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