TURBOT. 237 



to get free. The River Lampern was formerly used in large 

 quantities by the Dutch, and was a great favourite with them 

 as baits for Turbot, on account of the facility with which they 

 could be kept alive while the boats were at sea, and com- 

 bining bright silvery colour with great power of resisting the 

 usual effect of mutilation. The principal food of the Tur- 

 bot is small fish, Crustacea, and mollusca. It spawns about 

 August, but rapidly recovers its condition and firmness. 



Turbot are recorded as having been taken on the south 

 coast of Ireland ; I have seen one that was caught on the 

 coast of Londonderry in the north ; and there is little doubt 

 but this valuable species occurs at many intermediate lo- 

 calities. 



6i The Turbot was known to the Athenians, and has been 

 ever since a worthy object of gastronomical worship." The 

 most common size varies from five to ten pounds 1 weight ; 

 occasionally this fish attains to twenty pounds, and some- 

 times thirty pounds. Mr. Couch notices, in his MS. a re- 

 cord of one taken in the year 1730, at Cawsand, near Ply- 

 mouth, which weighed seventy pounds. On the 18th of 

 February 1832, an unusually large Turbot was caught at 

 Staiths, near Whitby, which weighed thirteen stone eight 

 pounds (one hundred and ninety pounds), and measured six 

 feet across. Rondeletius, however, states that he had seen a 

 Turbot five cubits in length, four in breadth, and a foot in 

 thickness. The Turbot is considered to have been the 

 Rhombus of the ancient Romans, of which a specimen of 

 enormous size is said to have been taken in the reign of 

 Domitian, who ordained a Senatus Consultum to devise the 

 best mode of bringing it to table.* 



" No vessel they find fit to hold such a fish, 



And the senate 's convoked to decree a new dish." 



* Juven. Sat. iv. 



