184 



THE SOLE. 



(Solea vulgaris.) 



German: Die Seezunge. Danish: Tunge. Swedish: Tunga. 

 French : Ln Sole. Italian : Sogliola. 



Haying in my appendix to the " Eeport on the Sea, 

 Fisheries of England and Wales, 1879" (c. 2449), given 

 the result of my investigations on the natural history 

 of the sole, I now give an abstract thereof : — 



"To the London marliet, and to the British public in 

 general, soles are the most important of sea fish. They 

 are required by all classes of society ; the higher classes 

 get those of the best quality, the poorer classes get the 

 smaller fish. 



"Very little is definitely known of the habits of the 

 sole. During the spring, soles resort to banks and 

 estuaries to seek their food and deposit their eggs, to 

 the well-being of which the heat of the sun is abso- 

 lutely necessary. In the winter they retire to great 

 depths in the ocean. 



" These two facts are of exceeding importance to the 

 fishermen in the North Sea ; for in the spring time of 

 the year a great migration of the soles in the North 

 Sea takes place towards the shallower water, which is 

 undoubtedly their spawning place. 



*' The fishing ground for soles on the Dutch coast may 

 be said to be about 278 miles long and 35 miles wide, 

 and the season when the fleet is working on this ground 

 may be generally said to be the spring and early 

 summer. 



*'In Ai)ril there would be 1,000 sail of smack fishing 

 from the Hook of Holland to the coast of Jutland. 



'' Along the Dutch coast there are several rocky 



