THE HOLIBUT. 583 



and forty-four Danish pounds, or three hundred and 

 eighty English ; and Nilsson, that he was informed by a 

 fisherman exposing one of these fish weighing two hundred 

 pounds for sale in the Lund market, that during the 

 preceding summer he had taken a specimen off the island 

 of Wiidoro, in the Boh us Skargard, that weighed seven 

 hundred and twenty Swedish pounds, or six hundred and 

 seventy-five English ! Olafsen, in his " Iceland Journey," 

 relates, moreover, that during his stay in Iceland, he 

 saw a Holihut ten feet long ; and Fabricius speaks of 

 another of the like size. It is a deep-sea fish, and, as a 

 rule, keeps much farther from the shore than any other 

 of the flounders : it is believed to thrive best where the 

 bottom consists of mud and clay. Its food consists partly 

 of large shell-fish, such as lobsters, and the great crab 

 (Platyoarcinus Pugnrus], &c., and partly of such fish as 

 habitually dwell at the bottom. According to the fisher- 

 men, it is specially fond of the Sea Wolf; they judge so, 

 because when the latter is fast to the " loner line," the 



O ' 



Ilolibut frequently carries it bodily off. 



It is said to be amongst the most voracious of fishes. 

 Kroyer states that in the stomach of the monster, just 

 spoken of, he found three cod fish, each three feet in 

 length, the aggregate weight of which could not have 

 been less than forty pounds. The Professor tells us 

 further, that he was informed by a fisherman in the 

 northern part of the Cattegat, that during the preceding 

 year Holibuts had in two several instances gorged the 

 lead with which soundings are taken. One of the fish 

 escaped, but the other was captured. Olafsen also relates 

 many remarkable instances of this fish's excessive greedi- 

 ness ; amongst the rest, that wood, iron, and even lumps 

 of ice have been found in its stomach. 



Nothing certain seems known as to the breeding habits 

 of the Ilolibut, some imagining it to spawn at Christmas 



