THE TURBOT. 535 



Europe ; and this would seem to be generally the case 

 in the Scandinavian seas, both, eastern and western, all 

 of which it in habits. In the Baltic, it does not appear 

 to go much higher up than the 61st or 62nd degree of 

 latitude ; and on the Norwegian coast, Kroyer states his 

 inability to trace it farther than Stadt (lat. 62). Its 

 usual weight with us was ten to twelve pounds, but from 

 twenty to twenty-five is not very uncommon ; by the 

 fishermen's account, indeed, it is occasionally taken of 

 forty and upwards. It keeps for the most part to the 

 bottom, in preference where sandy ; and goes much nearer 

 to the shore than the Holibut. English authorities tell 

 us this fish is occasionally seen at or near the surface of 

 the water, but I am not aware of this peculiarity having 

 come under the notice of Northern naturalists. Its food 

 consists of crustaceans, small fish, and marine animals. 



Kroyer describes this fish as very tenacious of life : 

 " When our fishermen in the Cattegat," he says, " cap- 

 ture a large Turbot and cannot at once find a purchaser, 

 they tie a line to its tail, or pass it through the mouth 

 and gills, and fasten it to a stone, or to a post, on the 

 shore, and even though the water be very shallow, the 

 fish will live a long time, provided the weather be not too 

 warm. The way in which it is conveyed in the ' well ' 

 of a vessel puts it to a still harder proof. After a line 

 has been passed, as mentioned, through its mouth and 

 gills, it is suspended in a perpendicular position to one 

 of the deck-beams, that it may not, by coming in contact 

 with other fish, injure them with its prickles." Swedish 

 naturalists assign May as the month in which it spawns ; 

 but Kroyer imagines the time to be August ; the fry, 

 some two inches in length, having been found by the 

 Danish fishermen in the earlier part of the year. It is 

 for the most part captured by the hook, but will not 

 willingly, they say, take a stale bait. A living one is 



