158 
TXJimOT. 
refers to the sndis, or spi. >s, -which were on the back of the fish, 
an expression not correct in reference to the fin rays of either 
of these fishes, but strictly applicable to the upper surface, or 
what fishermen term the hack, of the Turbot. It is to be 
observed further that this presentation to the emperor of an 
immense Adriatic Turbot was scarcely a voluntary act, since 
informers would have been ready to carry the news to the 
prince, and thus have ruined the fisherman. 
The Turbot is a fish of northerif or temperate climates, and 
is said to grow to a larger size generally on the coasts of 
Britain and Trance than further south j hut it is also known 
along the shores of Italy and fireece, and it is found also in 
the Black Sea. It prefers sandy ground, or where there is 
gravely and it is also reported to choose a bottom of mud, in 
which to embed itself for tlie purpose of hiding its body, in 
order the better to entrap unwary fishes; but this faculty of 
intelligence will require more positive support from observation 
than it has yet received. It appears to wander much, and in 
small companies; and I have been informed by fishermen that 
in many instances, when one has been drawn up with a line, 
a companion has followed it so closely as to be taken with 
the aid of the usual hooked stick CgatF) employed in lifting 
on board the larger fishes. But although the usual habit of 
the Turbot is to lie close to the ground, it is seen to mount 
occasionally to the surface, and maintain its station there at 
one stay for a considerable time, as if enjoying the flowing of 
the current, but in that situation it has seemed less eager to 
take a bait. 
I he ocean north of the Straits of Dover is a favourite 
resoit of these fishes; and it is there more particularly that a 
regular fishery with long lines, or bulteys, is carried on for 
catching them, the bait being a portion of a Herring or a 
Lamprey, large quantities of this last-named fish being collected 
for sale to the Dutch for this purpose. Mackarel is also a 
favourite bait, but only for a short time in the season. The 
fish which are thus taken are brought for the most pai-t to 
the London market; and in the middle of the last (eighteenth) 
century, the fishermen of Holland are said to have received 
one hundred tliousand pounds in one year for what they had 
brought to England of these fishes. 
