134 FISH. 



They are caught almost wholly by trawling, and 

 are found from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. 

 The chief trawling-ground is off the south coast, 

 from Sussex to Devon ; they are also taken off 

 Ireland, but the chief fishing station is Brixham 

 in Torbay. The boats on this ground usually use 

 trawling-nets from thirty to thirty-six feet in the 

 beam, and can depend on procuring a constant 

 supply. An enormous quantity is taken and sent 

 to market in baskets packed with the small fish 

 outside so as to protect the larger and more valu- 

 able ones. Within one year, eighty-six thousand 

 bushels of soles have been sent to Billingsgate 

 market. They are sometimes of very large size : 

 one is said to have weighed nine pounds, mea- 

 sured twenty-six inches long, eleven and a half 

 inches wide, and was very thick. The sole breeds 

 in the River Arun nearly up to the town of 

 Arundel ; they bury themselves in the sand during 

 the winter; and are caught in the Arun with a 

 ten foot beam trawl during the season from May 

 to November. The sole is usually found full of 

 roe at the end of February, when they spawn and 

 are for a few weeks soft and watery, but they 

 soon recover and are as delicate food as ever. 



