GEN. SOLEA. COMMON SOLE. 243 



to, and this is practised to a great extent on the 

 southern coasts of England. Brixham in Torbay has 

 been long a great fishing station ; and the boats, which 

 use trawling-nets with a very large beam, range for 

 them as far as Land's End, and even the Scilly 

 Islands. They are taken with the net in the Firth of 

 Forth, but in sparing numbers, falling far short of 

 the demand in the Edinburgh market. A solitary 

 specimen, according to Dr. Parnell, is occasionally 

 found on lines set for haddocks, and such as are so 

 caught are generally of large size ; one of twenty-two 

 inches in length was caught a short time since near 

 the Bass, which is the largest that has been found 

 in that neighbourhood for many years. Not many 

 instances are recorded of their exceeding these di- 

 mensions, but Mr. Yarrell mentions a pair taken 

 at Torbay which measured twenty- three inches in 

 length each, and weighed together ten pounds ; and 

 another appeared in Totness market in 1826 which 

 was twenty-six inches long, eleven inches and a 

 half wide, and weighed nine pounds. These fish are 

 in season nearly all the year , being soft and watery 

 only for a few weeks in the end of February and be- 

 ginning of March when they spawn, but the debility 

 consequent on that operation is inconsiderable, and 

 speedily repaired. The deeper the water from which 

 they are taken, the finer is the quality of the flesh, 

 and those of small or moderate size are considered 

 superior to very large ones. When sent to a distance 

 they are commonly packed in baskets, the smaller 

 ones arranged round the sides and the larger in the 



