99 



CHAPTER I. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



THE common sole is a somewhat southern species. In the neighbourhood of the 

 British Islands it is found in considerable abundance all over the southern part of 

 the North Sea, south of a line drawn from Flamborough Head in Yorkshire to the 

 north-west coast of Denmark. North of this line it is scarce. It is occasionally taken 

 off the mouth of the Firth of Forth, but very rarely. It is said to have been taken in 

 the Moray Firth, and off the Orkney and Shetland Islands. On the east side of the 

 North Sea it enters the Baltic, being occasionally taken on the north and east coasts of 

 Denmark and the coasts of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg. Further east in the 

 Baltic it has not been observed. Occasional examples have been taken on the west 

 coast of Norway up to the sixty-fourth degree of north latitude the neighbourhood of 

 Trondhjem. It occurs in some abundance all round the shores of Ireland, and on the 

 west coast of Britain from the mouth of the Firth of Clyde southwards, becoming 

 more abundant towards the south. It is abundant in the Bristol Channel and 

 throughout the English Channel, in the Bay of Biscay and southward along the west 

 coast of Portugal. It extends throughout the Mediterranean and probably into the 

 Black Sea. How far south the species extends along the coast of Africa I have not been 

 able to ascertain : it is not mentioned in Lowe's " Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira," 

 1837. 



The other three species, lascaris, variegata, and lutea, are common to the south-west 

 coast of England and the shores of Italy. In all probability they occur also along all 

 the intermediate coast-line. Lascaris occurs also at Madeira, if the specimen called 

 lascaris by Gimther is to be considered as of the same species as the English form. 

 Solea impar, Bennett, and probably S. margaritifera, Giinther, both closely allied to 

 lascaris^ come from the Atlantic coast of northern Africa. 



There are a large number of other species of Solea as here denned besides those 

 which occur in Britain. There are several which exist in the Mediterranean, namely, 

 Solea Kleinii, Solea ocellata, Solea monochir. One species is known from the west 

 coast of Africa, viz., Solea senegalensis. On the west side of the Atlantic the genus 

 is but slightly represented. One of the few things in which the citizens of the United 



o 2 



