128 FISH. 



few leagues to the south of Scheveling. As the 

 warm weather approaches, the fish gradually ad- 

 vance to the northward, and during the months 

 of April and May they are found in great shoals 

 on the banks called the broad forties. Early in 

 June they have proceeded to the banks which 

 surround the small island of Heligoland, off the 

 mouth of the Elbe, where the fishing continues to 

 the middle of August, when it terminates for the 

 year. The mode of taking turbot is as follows : 

 At the beginning of the season the trawl-net 

 is used; which being drawn along the banks, 

 bring up various kinds of flat-fish, as soles, plaice, 

 thornbacks, and turbots ; but when the warm 

 weather has driven the fish into deeper water, and 

 upon banks of a rougher surface, when trawling 

 is no longer practicable, the fishermen have then 

 recourse to their many hooked lines : the hooks 

 are baited with the common smelt, and a small 

 fish resembling an eel, called gorebill. Though 

 very considerable quantities of this fish are now 

 taken on various parts of our own coasts, from 

 the Orkneys to the Land's End, yet a preference 

 is given in the London market to those caught 

 by the Dutch, who are said to have made jg80,000 



