148 



LEMON SOLES 



Mr. Storroiv on Lemon Soles 



Mr. Storrow, of Cnllercoats, in 1916 wrote some valuable 

 notes on the growth of lemon soles. He found, from examining 

 eight fish., that it was not easy to age them from the marks on 

 the ear-stones, which were not nearly so clear as those on the 

 ear-stones of dabs or plaice. His photographs of the scales of 

 two of these fish, however, show that they indicate the age 

 distinctly enough. The photograph does not very clearly 



f f T f -f -f 





Fig 17. — Lemon soles (After Storrow.) 



indicate the end of the eight-years' growth in the case of the 

 older fish, but ' it is clear enough under the microscope '.^ 



The growth is rapid at the beginning of summer, and slows 

 down until the concentric rings come very close together. It was 

 found that practically all the scales (out of 140 each examined 

 from two lemon soles) gave similar readings as to the age of the 

 specimen from which they were taken, though in a few scales 

 the ridges were absent round the central focus. This seems to 

 establish the utility of scale reading as apphed to the species. 



1 Dove Marine Laboratory Report, N. S., V, p. 58. 



