Sole.] 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



171 



of its pursuing to the surface a companion that was 

 drawn up by the hne, when both were taken to- 

 gether " 



On the English coasts the turbot fishery is carried 

 on both with lines and by trawling. The former is 

 the most general mode pursued on the north-eastern 

 coast, and trawling is practised to a greater extent 

 on the south-western coasts. Mr. Travis, a surgeon 

 who resided at Scarborough, communicated to Mr. 

 Pennant the mode practised by the fishermen of 

 that place. This account will be found in the 

 'British Zoology,' and is in substance as follows: — 

 Each person isprovided with three lines, which are 

 fairly coiled upon a flat oblong piece of wicker- 

 work ; the hooks being baited, and placed very 

 regularly in the centre of the coil. Each line is 

 furnished with fourteen score of hooks, at the distance 

 of six feet two inches from each other. The hooks 

 are fastened to the lines upon "sheds" of twisted 

 horsehair, twenty-seven inches in length. When 

 fishing, there are always three men in each coble, 

 and consequently nine of these lines are fastened 

 together, and used as one line, extending in length 

 nearly three miles, and furnished with two thousand 

 five hundred and twenty hooks. An anchor and a 

 buoy are fixed at the first end of the line, and one 

 more of each at the end of each man's lines; in all, 

 lour anchors, which are commonly perforated stones, 

 and four buoys made of leather or cork. The line 

 is always laid across the current, and remains upon 

 the ground about six hours, as it can only be shot 

 or hauled at the turn of the tide. The rapidity of 

 the tide on this coast prevents the use of hand- 

 lines ; and therefore two of the men commonly 

 wrap themselves in a sail and sleep, while the others 

 keep a sharp look out, for fear of being run down 

 by ships, and to observe the weather. The coble is 

 about one ton burthen, rather more than twenty feet 

 long, extreme breadth five feet, and it is rowed with 

 three pairs of oars. A larger description of boat is 

 also used in the Scarborough turbot fishery. It is 

 forty feet long, fifteen feet broad, and of twenty-five 

 tons burthen, and is called the "five-men boat," 

 though usually navigated by six men and a boy; 

 but one of the men is hired to cook, and does not 

 share in the profits with the other five. Two cobles 

 are taken on board, and when they reach the fishing- 

 ground they anchor, and proceed to fish in the 

 cobles, and being provided with a double set of 

 lines, they haul one and shoot another every turn 

 of the tide. They generally run into harbour twice 

 a-week to deliver their fish. Such is the account 

 given sixty years ago by Mr. Travis, and it does not 

 appear, from Mr. Yarrell's recent work on British 

 Fishes, that any material change has taken place. 

 The practice varies a little on different parts of the 

 coast, but so it did at the former period. 



The turbot is too well known to need minute de- 

 scription ; the upper side is tuberculous, with little 

 starlike bones imbedded in the skin. The turbot is 

 called Bannock Fleuk in Scotland. Fig. 2485 re- 

 presents turbot-fishing off Scarborough. 



258&— The Brill 



{jRAombus wlfjdris). This well-known fish is taken 

 in the same localities, and by the same modes of 

 fishing, as the turbot ; in the firmness and flavour 

 of its flesh, however, it is very inferior to the latter, 

 though there is a good sale for it in the I»ndon 

 markets; numbers are brought from the deep waters 

 and bays of our southern coast, where it is very 

 common, spawning in the month of August. On 

 the Devonshire and Cornish coasts it is termed the 

 Kite, and in some parts of Scotland the Bonnet 

 Fleuk. 



Like the turbot, the brill feeds on small fish, 

 Crustacea, mollusks, &c., and is equally ravenous ; 

 its mouth is large and deeply cleft, and the under 

 jaw is longer than the upper. The weight of the 

 brill seldom exceeds seven or eight pounds, and as 

 it is never known to attain to the dimensions of the 

 turbot, to say nothing of its inferiority as an article 

 of diet, we are somewhat surprised that both Bloch 

 and the writer of the supplement to the class Fishes 

 m Mr. Griffith's edition of Cuvier's ' Animal King- 

 dom' should say that the enormous flat-fish pre- 

 sented to the Emperor Domitian was a brill. No 

 reasons are given, nor is any authority quoted. 



The brill is more oval than the turbot, and the 

 skin is destitute of tubercles, its surface being per- 

 fectly smooth. 



2487.— The Sole 



(Solea vulgaris). In the genus Solea both the eyes 

 and colour are on the right side (the figure in this 

 respect is erroneous) ; there are small teeth in both 

 jaws, but confined to the under side only, none 

 being on the same side as the eyes. The form of 

 the body is oblong. This well-known and excellent 

 fish is found all round our coasts where the bed of 

 the sea is sandy, its range extending northwards to 

 the Baltic and southwards to the Mediterranean. 

 The principal fisheries of the sole for the London 

 Vol. II. 



markets are along the southern coast of England, 

 and as the fish seldom takes the bait, trawling-nets 

 are used, by means of which enormous quantities 

 are captured ; they are sent to market packed up in 

 baskets, and in the course of twelve months Bil- 

 lingsgate has received eighty-six thousand bushels 

 of soles. 



The sole is in season throughout the greatest 

 portion of the year, and is full of roe in February, 

 in March or April it spawns, and is then for a few 

 weeks soft and flabby, but soon recovers. Its food 

 consists of small shelled mollusks, and the spawn 

 and fry of other fishes. The flesh of the sole is 

 firm, white, and of excellent flavour; were it indeed 

 a rare fish, instead of being abundant, it would com- 

 mand a high price in the market ; as it is, this 

 delicacy finds its way to the tables of all classes. 



Mr. Yarrell records a pair of soles taken in 

 Torbay which measured each in length twenty-three 

 inches, and weighed together ten pounds ; and he 

 adds, " For the particulars of the largest I have heard 

 of, I am indebted to the Rev. W. F. Cornish of 

 Totness. This specimen, a remarkably fine-grown 

 iish, and very thick, was twenty-six inches long, 

 eleven inches and a half wide, and weighed nine 

 pounds. — Totness market, June 21, 1826." 



Though the sole is a sea-fish, it thrives well in 

 fresh water, to which indeed it may be transferred 

 without difficulty. Dr. MacCulloch, in his papers in 

 the Royal Institution Quarterly Journal, 182.5, on 

 changing the residence of certain fishes from salt to 

 fresh water, instances a sole that for many years 

 was kept in a pond of fresh water in a garden. In 

 Mr. Arnold's pond at Guernsey soles live at their 

 ease and improve, becoming twice as thick for their 

 length as those taken out of the sea. The following 

 interesting letter from a gentleman residing on the 

 banks of the Arun contains an important state- 

 ment : — 



" I succeeded yesterday in seeing the person who 

 caught the soles about which you inquire, and who 

 has been in the constant habit of trawling for them 

 with a ten-feet-beam trawl in this river (the Arun) 

 for the last forty years. The season for taking them 

 is from May to November : they breed in the river, 

 frequenting it from its mouth, five miles upwards, 

 which is nearly to the town of Arundel, and re- 

 main in it the whole year, burying themselves in 

 the sand during the cold months. The fisherman 

 has occasionally taken them of large size, two 

 pounds weight each, but frequently of one pound, 

 and they are thicker in proportion than the soles i 

 usually caught at sea ; in other respects precisely 

 the same ; and it is evident they breed in great 

 numbers in the river, from the quantity of small 

 ones, about two inches long, that are constantly 

 brought ashore when drawing the net for grey 

 mullet." 



Reversed soles, that is, with the left side dark 

 coloured and the eyes sinistral, are not uncommon. 

 Mr. Yarrell informs us that he has a curious speci- 

 men that is of the usual dark colour, with rough 

 ciliated scales, on both sides alike. 



We owe the recognizance of a distinct species of 

 British sole, the Lemon Sole (Solea Pegusa), to that 

 excellent naturalist Mr. Yarrell, who obtained a 

 specimen at Brighton, in February, 1829. Since 

 that time two or three other specimens have been i 

 obtained in the London market ; those which were 

 presented by Mr. Yarrell to the Museum of the 

 Zool. Society we have often examined. 



Mr. Yarrell states that " this sole is occasionally 

 taken with the common sole when trawling over a 

 clear bottom of soft sand, about sixteen miles from 

 Brighton, in a direction towards the coast of France, 

 from which circumstance this fish is known to some 

 of our fishermen by the name of French sole ; others 

 call it by that of lemon sole, in reference to its pre- 

 vailing yellowish colour. In shape the lemon sole 

 is wider in proportion to its length than the com- 

 mon sole ; it is also somewhat thicker, and the head 

 is smaller. The prevailing colour is a mixture of 

 orange and light brown, speckled over with nume- 

 rous small round spots of dark nutmeg brown, giving 

 a mottled appearance to the whole upper surface." 



The scales differ in character, and the tail is nar- 

 rower than in the ordinary species ; the under sur- 

 face of the head is almost smooth, without any of 

 those papillary eminences so numerous and remark- 

 able in the common sole ; and the nostril is pierced 

 in a prominent tubular projection, which is wanting 

 in the other ; the scales, moreover, of the under 

 surface are more strongly marked than those of the 

 upper. 



Another rare sole, the Variegated Sole (Mono- 

 chirus linguatulus, Cuv.) is also occasionally taken 

 off our shores. 



2488. — The Marbled Sole 



(Achints marmoratus). The genus Achirus differs 

 from Solea in the absence of pectoral fins. 



This genus, says Cuvier, may be sejiarated into 

 two subgenera, the first of which (Achirus, properly 



so called) has the vertical fins distinct ; the second 

 (Plagusia) has them united to the caudal. 



The marbled sole (Achirus) is of a bluish white , 

 colour, sprinkled with innumerable small black 

 spots ; the body is covered with very liminutive 

 scales, and the flesh is of a very delicate flavour and 

 highly esteemed. This species is a native of the 

 coasts of the Isle of France. Commerson informs 

 us that a small pore is seated at the base of each 

 of the rays of the fins of this species, from which 

 issues, upon pressure, a milky fluid of the con- 

 sistence of olive oil. Most probably this is a lubri- 

 catory fluid for protecting the scales. All the soles 

 are in fact, remarkable for the adhesive slime or 

 glaze which covers them, and which to the practised 

 eye indicates the freshest fish, the most recently 

 drawn from the sea, of those which the fishmonger's 

 shop offers for choice. 



Fig. 2489 represents the fishing-boats on the 

 beach at Hastings. 



Fig. 2490 is a sketch of a fish-boat trawling for 

 red mullet off St. Alban's Head, Dorsetshire. 



St. Aldhelm's, commonly called St. Alban's Head, 

 is a well-known landmark on the Dorsetshire coast. 

 It does not stretch out so far into the sea as the 

 opposite promontory of Portland Bill ; but a line 

 drawn from one point to the other, and which 

 would be above twenty miles in extent, would com- 

 prise a large expanse of ocean, in which are to be 

 found good roads for shipping, safe harbours and 

 secure coves for smaller vessels. The cliff', which 

 presents its rugged form seaward, rises almost per- 

 pendicularly to a height of four hundred and forty-, 

 one feet. On this promontory a chapel was dedi- 

 cated to St. Aldhelm, the first bishop of Sherborne. . 

 It was vaulted with stone, and sustained by a single 

 massive pillar. The only means for the admission , 

 of light was by the door. It was an oratory rather 

 than a chapel, in which, according to Hutchins, the 

 historian of Dorsetshire, masses were said, and 

 prayers uttered for the passing mariner, who left 

 some recognition of his gratitude at the next port 

 at which he touched, to be applied to the mainte- 

 nance of the priest. In the beginning of the pre- 

 sent century the building was nearly in ruins. 



Order MALACOPTERYGII, continued. 

 APODES. 



This group derives the name apodal, or footless, - 

 from the absence of ventral fins. 



Family MUR^NID^ (EELS, CONGERS, &c.). 



The Muraenidse, or Eels, are fishes of an elongated' 

 slender form, with a soft thick skin, without per- 

 ceptible scales, and very slimy. The gill orifices 

 are very small and surrounded concentrically with 

 rays, and are carried far back, so that a sort of 

 passage is formed leading to the branchiae, which 

 are thus the better sheltered, so that the fish is 

 capable of living for a considerable time out of 

 water without perishing. 



The air-bladder is generally present. Thoughi 

 there appear to be no scales, yet very minute 

 scales really exist, imbedded as it were in the thick 

 fatty skin, but they cannot well be seen until the 

 skin is dry. 



Fig. 2491 is a characteristic representative of the 

 Head of the Eel. 



2492. — The Sharp-nosed Eel 



(Anffuilla acutirostris, Yarrell). In the genua 

 Anguilla the body is elongated and cylindrical, be- 

 coming more and more compressed to the tail ; 

 the mucous glands of the skin are large ; the air- 

 bladder is long : there are teeth in each jaw, and 

 a few on the vomer. The pectoral fins are close to 

 the small branchial aperture. There are no ventral 

 fins, and the dorsal fins, the caudal fin, and the pos- 

 terior below are all united. 



Cuvier in his last edition of the ' Regne Animal,' 

 in reference to the true eels (Anguiiles vraies) says, 

 " Our fishermen recognise four kinds, which they 

 regard as forming so many species, but which au- 

 thors confound under the general term of Murceiia 

 Anguilla, Linnaeus, viz. : the ' Anguille verniaux,' 

 which is, I believe, the most common ; the ' An- 

 guille long-bee,' of which the muzzle is more com- 

 pressed and pointed; the 'Anguille plat-bee,' 

 Grig-eel of the English, which has the muzzle 

 more flattened and obtuse, and the eye smaller; 

 and the 'Anguille pimperneux,' Glut-eel of the 

 English, which has the muzzle shorter in proportion, 

 and eyes larger than those of the others. 



Mr. Yarrell, in his work on Fishes, distiKguishes 

 the following species as indigenous in the British 

 Islands: — The Sharp-nosed Eel (A. acutirostris). 

 Long-bee of Cuvier; theiJroad-nosed Eel (A. lati- 

 rostris; Glut-Eel, Bowdich (Pimpernaux, Cuvier); 

 the Snig (A. mediorostris). Besides these he intro- 

 duces the figure of a fourth eel, with the following 

 observation; " The term Grig in and about London 



Z2 



