532 THE HOLIBUT. 



they did uot seek the coast in like manner as the young 

 of other flounders." The period at which this fisli deposits 

 its roe is ratlier unsettled. Kroyer, however, says : — " On 

 the 22nd July I found in a female seventeen inches in 

 length, the lobes containing the roe to be nearly eight 

 inches long, and the roe itself appeared ready for shedding. 

 I therefore came to the conclusion that it spawns in the 

 beffinnins? of August." This statement of the Professor 

 is in accordance wdth wdiat the Swedish fishermen have 

 told Nilsson. The Pole is held in estimation for culinary 

 purposes, many thinking it equal to the Sole. 



The Ilolibut {fLaie-Fliuidm* Sw. ; Hfdle-Fhjuilcr, 

 (Dan. and) Norw., Krcjte, Norw. ; ///jipoglossus viilfjarls, 

 Flem.), a Northern fish, and the largest of the flounders, 

 is common in the Bohus Skiirgard and the Cattegat ; but 

 it becomes scarcer and scarcer as one follows the Swedish 

 coast to the southward, so that comparatively few find 

 their way into the Sound, and rarely if ever into the Baltic* 

 On the western coast of Denmark, and the Duchies of 

 Slesvig and Holstein down to Heligoland, as also along 

 the whole coast of Norway up to the North Cape itself, 

 this fish is common. Its usual length w'ith us was from 

 three to four feet, and weight thirty to forty pounds ; 

 but individuals of from one hundred to one hundred and 

 fifty or even two hundred pounds were not so very vmusual : 

 we read, indeed, of jierfect monsters. Ki-oyer tells us, 

 for instance, that he himself dissected a holibut caught 

 on the Norwegian coast that was seven feet in length, and, 

 though terribly out of condition, weighed three hundred 



* The prefix Halle, says Nilsson, is derived from the word hallir (holes) 

 meaning sucli parts of the bottom, where springs of fresh water well up, 

 they being the favourite resort of this fish ; but Kroyer thinks, with Schone- 

 velde, the word may be taken from the size of the fish, Grcecorum exemplo, 

 qui, qua' magna sunt, nonnunquam sacra dicuiU, being the large and (therefore) 

 holy fish, which may also give the clue to the English name of holibut. 



