278 SPARID^. 



I have quoted the above remarks for two reasons, first because 

 I desire to register my assertion as against Dr. Dekay's, although 

 such things are, after all, merely matters of opinion, that the 

 Sheep's-head, though a delicious fish, is not more delicate — 

 savoury neither of them are — than the Turbot, and that it is im- 

 measurably inferior to it in lacking what constitutes the Turbot's 

 chief excellence, the admirable gelatinous fins, which have been 

 famous the world over from the time of Domitian and Helioga- 

 balus, arch-epicures of old, to the palmy days of Ude and 

 Careme. 



Secondly, I beg leave to state positively, that although the 

 Turbot of Europe does not exist on the shores of America, a 

 Turbot, — and a very admirable fish too, as far superior to the 

 Halibut as one fish can well be to another, — does exist, and is 

 constantly taken on the shores of Massachusetts, although, like 

 many other excellent species, it is strangely undervalued. 



But to return to the Sheep's-head : it is a timid and wary fish, 

 very difficult to hook, and when hooked a fierce and bold battler, 

 exceeding difficult to land, and making a more desperate resist- 

 ance than infinitely larger species. It is considered the greatest 

 achievement of the salt-water fisherman to master this king of 

 the seas. 



It is occasionally taken up to seventeen pounds, though seven 

 or eight pounds may be considered the average of large fish, but 

 like many, I might say most fishes, the smaller and middle-sized 

 run may be generally set down as the most choice. 



The Sheep's-head has a deep compressed body, a head sloping 

 abruptly to the snout, and equally so to the chin and throat. 

 Scales large and oblong, smaller on the gill-covers and throat ; 



