868 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Novemher 20. — I met Ball. He catches shrimps for feeding the aqua- 

 rium fish aud for market; gets small soles in quantity from 3 to 4 inches 

 long; seldom gets largf, marketable fish^ except in summer; he agrees 

 to catch me 100 small soles for 30 shillings. Too stormy to fish to-day, 

 so I try and get some information about these fish, of whose habits I 

 know nothing. 



I am told that it is of no use to try for large soles with the men 

 who fish for market, as at this time of year they go far out and stay 

 from three days to a week, using heavy trawls that require an hour or 

 more to raise; hence they leave them down for nearly a whole tide, and 

 when raised the fish are mostly dead. In the summer soles are found 

 near the shore aud in the mouths of rivers, but at the approach of cold 

 weather, or during storms, they seek deei)er waters. Fishermen say 

 that the shifting sand near shore in stormy weather gets in their gills, 

 which they do not like, although they often bury the greater part of 

 their bodies in sand or shingle in quiet water. Ball fishes with what Is 

 called a "shank" net, something like a beam-trawl, but smaller, and 

 dragged somewhat faster over the sand and weeds for shrimp. Still 

 blowing too hard to fish. Heard of a "Limon Sole" in market; went 

 to see it, aud found that it was not Giinther's fish of that name, Solea 

 aurantiaca, but a species of Flounder, Pleitronectes microcepJialus, also 

 called "Lemon dab" and "Smooth dab"; it is sold much cheaper than 

 tbe sole, and in great quantity. Stormy weather continued with more 

 or less violence until November 29. 



November 29. — Ball fished ; got eleven small soles, which he says are 

 not the true variety, but a kiud that grows no larger. Mr. Long dis- 

 putes this, and I incline to accept his opinion, as based upon a scientific 

 acquaintance with British fishes. To make sure, however, and provide 

 against all chances of error, I procured Couch's illustrated work on 

 "British fishes," and Gunther's "Catalogue of fishes of the British Mu- 

 seum," and found by presence of pectoral fin on lower or white side, and 

 other characters, that Mr. Long was correct, and that the specimens were 

 neither the "Little Sole" or "Solouette," Solea miiiuta, Gthr., which is 

 common in Cornwall and the west coast of England, and has its eyes near 

 each other aud jaws nearly equal with a projection of the lower instead of 

 the upper jaw, as in S. vulgaris, and the nostrils very close in front of 

 the right eye; nor the one known by the names of "Variegated Sole," 

 "Tiiick back," "Bastard Sole," and "Red-backed Sole," 8. variegata, 

 Gthr., which seldom grows over 8 or 9 inches in length, and is not esteemed 

 for the table; this species is characterized by having its lower eye smaller 

 and in advance of tbe other. These and S. aurantiaca, referred to above, 

 which has no pectoral fin on the blind side, being all that I had to be- 

 ware of, made it certain that I would not mistake an allied form for 

 the right one S. vulgaris; and although I proved the fisherman's notion 

 false, it bad the good efiect of putting me on guard in collecting fish 

 with which I was unfamiliar, and thus teaching me that there was danger 



