POLE. 



191 



Ireland, so that one hundred and twenty of these fishes were 

 in one instance caught at the single haul of a net, near 

 Newcastle, in the County Down. Seventy also were obtained 

 on another occasion near the same place; and it appears to 

 have been so well known to the fishermen as to have acquired 

 the name of White Sole, in distinction from what they term 

 the Black, which is the Common Sole. But the former name 

 is the less distinctive, as it is also applied to the Whiff or 

 Carter, a fact which is so far descriptive of the state of Irish 

 marine natural history, that there is scarcely a fish of that 

 country which does not bear many names, even in places 

 not distant from one another; and, more perplexing still, there 

 are fishes not closely resembling each other which are so 

 confounded together as to pass under the same denomination. 

 It should be added, however, that in Scotland also this fish 

 is not always known by the same name in every place. 

 Bivalve shell-fish and crustacean animals were found in the 

 stomachs of these fishes, and when offered for sale they found 

 but little estimation in the market. 



Dr. Parnell appears to have been the first who described 

 the Pole from a British example, although at that time he 

 was not able to assign to it any known synonym; and to 

 secure greater accuracy we prefer to copy his description, 

 taken from his paper on the fishes of the Firth of Forth, 

 referred to at the head of this article. 



The length of the specimen described was sixteen inches 

 and a half, the breadth eight inches and a half, with a 

 thickness of one inch; and in different individuals the proportions 

 varied from twice and two thirds to three and a half of the 

 breadth to the length, exclusive of the tail; the shape, 

 therefore, is much like that of the Sole, but not quite so 

 much lengthened. The gape small; jaws almost equal, or the 

 lower a little the longest, with a row of blunt cutting teeth 

 round each jaw; eyes separate, the lower eye a little in 

 advance. Scales over the body and cheeks, but none before 

 the eyes, of moderate size, with plain edges, and easily 

 removed from their attachments. The lateral line at first 

 descends slightly, afterwards straight. Ventral fins separate 

 from the anal. The dorsal begins above the eye, widest at 

 the middle, as is the anal opposite to it, the rays marked 



