TURBOT. 313 



and marine insects, as well as on various kinds of 

 small fishes : it is taken in great quantities about 

 the northern coasts of England, as well as on those 

 of France, Holland, &c. and is baited for with 

 pieces of herring, haddock, &c. but more par- 

 ticularly with the smaller or river lamprey, vast 

 quantities of which are said to be purchased of our 

 fishermen by the Dutch, to the annual amount of 

 not less than seven hundred pounds : they are 

 chiefly taken about Mortlake, and sold to the 

 Dutch as bait for the cod-fishery, but that people 

 are said to have the art of preserving them till the 

 commencement of the turbot-fishery. 



The general manner in which the Turbot-fishery 

 is practised at Scarborough is thus detailed by Mr. 

 Pennant in the British Zoology, from the com- 

 munications of Mr. Travis of that place. 



" When they go out to fish, each man is provided 

 with three lines : each man's lines are fairly coiled 

 upon a flat, oblong piece of wicker-work ; the 

 hooks being baited, and placed very regularly in 

 the centre of the coil : each line is furnished with 

 fourteen score of hooks, at the distance of six feet 

 two inches from each other: the hooks are fastened 

 to the lines upon sneads of twisted horse-hair seven- 

 teen inches in length : when fishing, there are 

 always three men in each coble, and consequently 

 nine of these lines are fastened together, and used 

 as one line, extending in length near three miles 

 and furnished with 2520 hooks : an anchor and a 

 buoy are fixed at the first end of the line, and one 

 more at each end of each man's lines, in all four 



