PLATE LXXV. 
The Holibut is beyond comparison the largest of the Pleuronecte* 
tribe ; some say even of all aquatic animals with the exception only 
of the whale tribe, but to this we cannot give our entire assent ; there 
are other monsters of the ‘‘ vasty deep” that may vie in magnitude 
with the Holibut. This fish is commonly found of seventy, eighty* 
or one hundred pounds in weight : individuals of this size are not very 
unfrequent in the London markets in the spring, or early in the sum- 
mer, at which time they quit the deep recesses of the ocean, and ap- 
proach the shores, with the view of depositing their spawn in places of 
safety. We have seen them even ot two hundred pounds weight, or 
more, at that season of the year, in the niarkets of ou- metropolis* 
where they obta n a ready sale among the lower omers of society at 
about the average price of six-pcnce or seven-] cncc per pound. The 
fiesh is hot held in very high estimation, being hard, dry, and of 
mdiiFerent flavour] the head, and fatty part beneath the pectoral fi** 
excepted. In Holland, where those fish are common, the head 
and shoulders are admitted to the tables of the great, but no other 
part. Some think the smaller ones, weighing from five, or six, to ten 
pounds, better than tliose of a larger size, but this is not a very 
general opinion. 
Pennant speaks of the Holibut being caught in the British seas of 
considerable magnitude, namely, from one to three hundred weight- 
On the coast of Iceland, and other northern regions, it is said to 
grow much larger, or from four to five hundred pounds each what 
indeed must be the weight of that Holibut which Olafsen tells us he 
has seen, that measured five French ells in length ! 
I'hese fish are very abundant in the North Seas. On the coast 
Greenland the natives cat it fresh in summer, and prepare a latg® 
