312 SOLE FLOUNDER. Class IV. 



It is a fish of a very delicate flavour ; but the 

 small soles are much superior in goodness to 

 large ones. * The chief fishery for them is at 

 Brixham in Torbay. 



" The upper side is uniformly reticulated 

 over the body, head, and fins, with a small net- 

 work pattern of a darker color, and sometimes 

 marked with cloudy spots; the scales fringed 

 at the outer edge with a row of transparent 

 points. The side line much bent at its com- 

 mencement near the right eye. The Torbay 

 trawl boats will at particular seasons range for 

 them as far as the Land's End, and even to the 

 islands of Stilly, and then it is not unusual to 

 take them of two feet or more in length. They 

 are in season all the year, the month of May 

 excepted. The dried skins are much used for 

 fining liquors, and are for that purpose a good 

 substitute for isinglass. E. H." 



* By the antient laws of the Cinque ports, no one was to take 

 soles from the 1st of November to the 15th of March; neither 

 was any body to fish from sun-setting to sun-rising, that the fish 

 might enjoy their night-food. 



