394 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
there is any record of the occurrence of such small forms anywhere 
except close inshore, either in shallow sandy grounds or in estu-’ 
aries ; and for my own part I believe that, while the early stages of 
metamorphosis are pelagic, the young fish, on the assumption of the 
adult conformation, adopt an inshore or estuarine habitat, and are 
in no sense generally distributed over the North Sea. There is no 
evidence of such general distribution, though it is commonly 
asserted by fishermen that they catch large numbers of very small 
soles on the grounds about the Well Bank, and also on the Hastern 
grounds; but all the small examples which I have obtained from 
either locality have proved to be solenettes (S. lutea). The 
solenette is very easily distinguished from a true sole of the same 
size if the two are compared together, but this the deep-sea fisher- 
man has no chance of doing, as he never catches any very small 
true soles. 
Soles of all sizes, from about five to about twelve inches, are 
fairly plentiful in the Humber during the spring and summer, 
especially on certain grounds, mostly with rather deep soundings ; 
but occasionally examples of larger size than those previously 
mentioned are taken at the margin also. About the beginning of 
July larger fish, which have recently spawned, begin to make their 
appearance in the river, but most of them disappear again by 
November. In the autumn a considerable number of fish, all of 
fair or large size, arrive in Scarborough Bay. 
Of the haunts of very small soles on the Continental side I know 
little, but have been told that in the early days of trawling, when 
the smacks used to tow almost up to the beach, great numbers used 
to be caught of a size much smaller than those which are now to be 
found beyond the three-mile lmit, and I have no doubt that the 
shallow sea lakes of Holland, Germany, and Denmark are the 
nurseries of the species for those coasts. 
From any absolute knowledge which we have of the distribution 
at different sizes it appears that the sole, after the completion of its 
early metamorphosis, becomes practically an estuarine or, at least, 
an exclusively httoral species until it has reached a size which 
closely corresponds with that at which sexual maturity is assumed. 
Of the winter habitat of young soles it is hard to speak posi- 
tively, since very few can be obtained anywhere. To a certain 
extent they may migrate into deeper water, but I know no proof of 
this, and I am inclined to share the belief of many fishermen that 
they hibernate to a great extent by burying themselves in the 
sand ; their powers of burrowing must be well known to every one 
who has watched them in captivity. 
It is well known that the former abundance of soles in the 
