TRANSPORTATION OF TURBOT AND SOLES. 869 



of gettiug a wrong aud iusignificant fish iu waters where, fiucliug but 

 one species in market, I was previously unaware of their existence. 



Kovember 30. — Eleven of the soles procured yesterday were dead this 

 morning ; many of them show red blotches on the white side as if blood 

 was congested there from injuries; put them in spirit for the Smithsonian 

 Institution. High wind and rain ; no fishing. 



Decemher 1. — At suggestion of Mr. C. L, Jackson, consulting natural- 

 ist of the aquarium, I hired a boat and two men, and we went out to 

 fish one tide with a beam-trawl. Result: five small soles and a great 

 quantity of flounders from 1 to 3 inches long. The fishermen now say 

 it is too late iu the season for soles, and regret that I did not arrive a 

 fortnight earlier. This is the usual consolation for collectors every- 

 where. 



Decemher 3. — Fleetwood, still farther up the coast, is a famous place 

 for soles. Went there; same story — "too late." Dropped a line to a 

 fisherman at Bangor, Wales, to know if any were to be had below Liver- 

 pool. 



December 6. Weather has been good and the men have fished, but 

 caught no soles. A letter from Bangor gives no hope. The five caught 

 on the 1st, and the two on hand, are dead, and it looks like a hopeless 

 task to get enough for a trial ; for if they will not live a week iu the 

 aquarium they certainly will not on the ship, and I had reluctantly 

 made up my mind to return without them, when Mr. Long offered me his 

 nearly full grown ones from the show-tanks where he had fed them to 

 their present size from yearlings of 3 inches, and of which he had 

 between twenty and thirty specimens. 



December 7. — Wrote Mr. Cuuard that the fish would be ready to go at 

 his earliest convenience. The men caught twenty small soles to-day, but 

 all died before getting them ashore ; they say that soles will die in a 

 can if there is a frost, no matter what the temperature of the water in- 

 side may be. This is surely untrue ; possibly they may not stand a cer- 

 tain degree, but the men evidently do not know the dying point. Mr. Long 

 states the extremes of temperature at Southport pier as 45° and 68°. 

 Thought it well to know how they would stand water without circulation, 

 and so I put a sole 6 inches long in a gallon of water at noon, and looked 

 at it every half hour ; at 9 p. m. it seemed as fresh as ever, and I thought 

 if it would live nine hours in a gallon, it might live twelve as well, and 

 changed the water, measuring it with a half-pint glass ; woke up in the 

 night and suddenly remembered that I had only put in twelve half-pints 

 instead of sixteen ; fish alive at 9 a. m., apparently ignorant of my blun- 

 der, and lived until 9 p. m., twenty-four hours, when I considered that 

 it had undergone trial enough, and replaced it in the tank alive and well. 

 In this experiment it is fair to state that, being i^laced in the bottom of an 

 oval can 2 feet by 1 wide, with one end slightly raised, there was a com- 

 paratively great amount of surface exposed, and the oxygenation conse- 

 quently better than is usual in a transportation can. There is a Cunard 



