256 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



trawl used for shrimps. Dr. Fulton found that in the Solway 

 Firth in June only eleven soles, 2^ to 6 inches long, were taken in 

 five hauls, the depth of water being 3 to 15 feet. On the 

 Lancashire coast a great deal of inshore fishing goes on, including 

 shrimp trawling, and yearling soles, 3 to 6 inches in length, are 

 taken in considerable numbers. The proportion however in 

 number of these to small plaice is not great, the lowest was 

 4 soles to 900 plaice, and the highest 136 soles to 520 plaice. 

 The fishing is carried on chiefly in the summer months, at 

 depths from 3 to 10 fathoms. That yearling soles do occur 

 sometimes in large shoals, in inshore waters, is proved 

 by an observation made by myself, on the Essex coast. There 

 on board a shrimp trawler, fishing in the Wallet, from Colne 

 Bar up to Clacton, in the beginning of June, I saw very large 

 numbers of small flat fishes brought up with the shrimps, and 

 although plaice and dabs were most abundant, there were many 

 hundreds of small soles 3 to 5 inches long, and also many lemon 

 dabs. There can be no doubt that these soles were the produce 

 of the preceding season. As all the flat fishes were culled out 

 by hand and thrown overboard, there was no great destruction of 

 the valuable soles, which are not injured by such a course of treat- 

 ment, provided they are not kept on the deck of the boat too 

 long. 



A few soles may possibly reach a length of 8 inches, when 

 one year old, but it is pretty certain that the great majority at 

 that age measure between 3 and 6 inches. It appears from the 

 evidence summarised above, that soles in the first year of life 

 are confined to inshore waters, to depths less than 10 fathoms. 



Immature soles above 6 inches in length, do not seem to 

 frequent different grounds from those on which the full-grown 

 fish are found. Both the immature and the mature after spawning 

 are found, especially in summer, on inshore grounds, and in 

 estuaries up to a considerable distance from the sea. Thus four 

 were taken in July at Malpas in the Fal estuary more than ten 

 miles from the sea. In the Humber in May small boats get as 

 many as thirty from 7 to 10^ inches long, in a night's fishing, 

 and larger spent fish are taken there in Jul}', August, and 

 September. 



6"/^^ at -ivhicJi Maturity is readied. — There seems to be no great 

 difference between the size at which soles begin to breed in the 



