ORE A T BRIT A IN. 219 



it inhabited rivers. The flounder is found in the sea and 

 at the mouths of all the larger rivers round our coasts, and 

 is common in the North Sea and Baltic. Donovan, ob- 

 served that it inhabits both salt and fresh waters ; Montagu 

 that it is taken in the Avon, to within three miles of Bath ; 

 Yarrell, that it exists in the Thames, as high as Sunbury ; 

 Parnell, that it ascends rivers to a considerable distance, 

 particularly when the waters are discoloured and increased 

 in size by heavy rains. Personally I have a recollection of 

 taking flounders with a worm, about thirty years since, 

 from the Severn at Shrewsbury. Mr. Henry Shaw, of 

 Shrewsbury, observed : " Flounders were caught, thirty-five 

 >r forty years ago, about Shrewsbury, and a long way 

 ibove, in considerable numbers ; but since the weirs about 

 r orcester and Gloucester have been made, their ascent 

 is been stopped. The Peplows (fishermen) used to lay 

 they termed sprigtail lines for them, in the early 

 spring months, on the sandy places they frequented. This 

 sprigtail consisted of a crooked pin, with a double bend, 

 lying the form of two knees ; to this was affixed about 

 four horse-hairs, and baited with part of a worm. The 

 lounder swallowed it, and, as soon as he began to pull, the 

 >in became crosswise. They used to employ two to three 

 tundred at a time on a long line, and lay them at night- 

 ime." Were the weirs on the Severn destroyed, these 

 fish would immediately remount that river, at least to as 

 ligh as Shrewsbury. 



Means of capture. Lowe observes that in the shallower 

 of the Loch of Stenness he has seen vast numbers 

 taken with a seine-net. Thompson mentions having 

 observed a fisherman at the mouth of the Bann using an 

 implement as follows : it was in the form of two sides of a 

 garden reel, with a spike, which was stuck into the ground ; 



