ON THE GROWTH OF THE TURBOT. 387 
pound, or rather less, each fish. That such a deduction may 
be fairly drawn from an analysis of the tables published in the 
‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London’ for December, 
1879, appears scarcely to admit of a doubt. Whether the Turbot 
had merely spawned in that locality for one season—whether 
they ceased breeding there for a few years—or whatever the 
cause may have been, a single brood, almost exclusively, appears 
to have been annually fallen in with at the same place, while the 
yearly increment in the size of the fish was, as stated, about 
one pound each. 
The foregoing two sets of observations, giving such diverse 
conclusions, are exceedingly interesting, and I propose offering 
a few very brief remarks towards explaining how it appears to 
me that such different results were arrived at. Leaving out of 
consideration local circumstances, or an individual tendency in a 
fish to be larger or smaller than its relatives, every investigator 
must frequently have had his attention directed to how certain 
forms in particular districts attain to their largest proportions ; 
likewise how—except perhaps in instances of occasional wan- 
derers—on reaching near to the outer bounds of their geographical 
range, there may be observed a tendency to deterioration, or 
taking on a smaller size and inferior character. The fish has 
attained the limit of that region wherein it can reside with benefit 
to itself, and now it has to give place to another species more 
adapted to the locality. 
This brings us to a consideration of what is the geographical 
distribution of the Turbot. Is it a fish restricted to the cold 
north, or does its range extend to the more temperate and genial 
south? It frequents the seas of Europe, extending southwards 
into the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. Low considered it rare 
in the Orkneys, while Yarrell remarked that its numbers in- 
crease on coming southwards. Plentiful in the German Ocean, 
it is not so common along the shores of Ireland, although taken 
all round the coast. In Holland the fishery begins, about the end 
of March, a few leagues to the south of Schevelingen; but as 
the warm weather approaches, the fish gradually advance north- 
ward, and fishing continues until the middle of August, when it 
terminates for the year. 
It would seem probable that the Turbot, which extends its 
range as far south as the Mediterranean, and in the earlier months 
