58 Halibut and Turbot. 



Estuary, at least within the bounds worked ordinarily by the 

 Leigh-fisher. Our Sub-committee's representative has not seen 

 one himself, young or old, vouched for as of Thames mouth 

 extraction. Information as to solitary individuals having at 

 times been secured is not wanting. Mr. R. Johnson relates 

 his capture of one in 1856, or thereabouts ; and he assures us 

 several other members of his craft have on a few chance 

 occasions come across a specimen. His own example was 2J or 

 3 feet long, and it was sold in Billingsgate for 15s. It was 

 caught by hook and line, baited with plaice, which had been laid 

 the night before. Mr. J. Tyrrel says that over thirty years ago 

 he also caught a fine fellow on the south side of the North 

 Knob, in some 12 fathoms of water ; the spot was colloquially 

 known among the fishermen as " Dengie Head." He reckons 

 it was 5 feet long, and that it weighed nigh three-quarters of a 

 hundredweight. He was not fortunate in its sale, 5s. being all 

 he got for it at Billingsgate " That morning being a dreadful 

 bad market." 



The halibut is decidedly a northern deep-water fish, still 

 they are fairly numerous as far south as the Dogger Bank. 

 Comparatively few reach the S.E. English coast, though 

 recorded oft' Norfolk (Patterson). They grow to an enormous 

 size, those above-mentioned being very far from full grown 

 specimens. It appears among the " List of Fishes of Sandgate 

 and its neighbourhood," by W. Boys, 1792. The Ramsgate 

 fishing craft, we understand, occasionally land them, but these 

 are from the North Sea grounds. We are not aware of any 

 authenticated Kent specimens other than mentioned, though it 

 is said to have been taken on the neighbouring Sussex coast. 



(11.) The TDK EOT (RJwmbus maximus). Some fifty years 

 ago Turbot were comparatively plentiful in The Swin and 

 along the Mapliii Sands. Although many of these were 

 small or of moderate size, it was not exceptional to get 

 them nearly 2 feet long according to Mr. B. Baxter. Even 

 yet, 'tis said, turbot are not altogether scarce, from the 



