238 THE INHABITANTS OF TIIE SEA. 
entirely by trawling. The principal fishing-ground in England 
is along the south coast from Sussex to Devonshire, where the 
soles are much larger and considered otherwise superior to 
those of the north and east. On the Devonshire coast, the great 
fishing-station is at Brixham in Torbay, where the boats, using 
large trawling nets from thirty to thirty-six feet in beam, pro- 
duce a continual supply. 
The Plaice and Flounder, though far inferior to the sole in 
quality, are still in great request as articles of food. On the 
English coast, the plaice are obtained 
in abundance on all sandy banks and 
muddy grounds, wherever either lines 
or trawl-nets can be used. On the 
sandy flats of the Solway Frith, they 
are taken by the fishermen and their 
families wading in the shoal water 
with bare feet. When a fish is felt, it 
is pressed by the foot firmly against the bottom until it can 
be secured by the hand and transferred to the basket. Long 
practice gives the dexterity which renders this kind of fishing 
successful. 
In some parts of the North of Europe, where from the rocky 
nature of the soil the sea is remarkably transparent, plaice and 
some other flat-fish of large size are taken by dropping down 
upon them from a boat a doubly-barbed short spear, heavily 
leaded, to carry it with velocity to the bottom, with a line 
attached to it, by which the fish, when transfixed, is hauled up. 
The Flounder, one of the most common of the flat-fish, is 
found in the sea and near the mouths of large streams all round 
our coast, particularly where the bottom 
is soft, whether of sand, clay, or mud. 
It also ascends the rivers, and is caught 
in considerable quantities from Deptford 
to Richmond by Thames fishermen, who, 
with the assistance of an apprentice, use 
a net of a particular sort, called a tuck- 
sean. * One end of this net,” says Yarrell, “is fixed for a short 
The Flounder. 
a ready market for the produce of the seas. In Ireland, however, there has been 
a diminution of 10,583 boats and 52,127 men within the same time; a consequence 
of the famine of 1848, and subsequent emigration, 
