POLE. 
191 
Ireland, so that one hundred and twenty of these fishes were 
m one instance caught at the single haul of a net, near 
Newcastle, in the County Down. Seventy also were obtained 
on another occasion near the same place; and it appears to 
have been so well known to the fishermen as to have acquii-ed 
the name of White Sole, in distinction from what they term 
the Black, which k the Common Sole. But the former name 
IS the less distinctive,^ as it is also applied to the Whift' or 
Carter, a fact which is so far descriptive of the state of Irish 
marine natural history, that there is scarcely a fish of that 
country winch does not hear many names, even in places 
not distant from one another; and, more perplexing still, there 
are fishes not closely resembling each other which are so 
confounded together as to pass under the same denomination. 
It should be added, however, that in Scotland also this fish 
IS not always known by the same name in every place. 
Bivalve shell-fish and crustacean animals were found in the 
stomachs of these fishes, and when offered for sale they found 
but little estiniation. iu the luarket. 
Dr. Parnell appears to have been the first who described 
the Pole from a British example, although at that time he 
was not able to assign to it any known synonym; and to 
secure greater accuracy we prefer to copy his description 
taken from his paper on the fishes of the Firth of Forth' 
referred to at the head of this article. 
I he length of the specimen described was sixteen inches 
and a half, the breadth eight inches and a half, with a 
thickness of one inch; and in different individuals the proportions 
varied from twice and two thirds to three and a half of the 
breadth to the length, exclusive of the tail; the shape 
therefore, is much like that of the Sole, but not quite so’ 
much lengthened. The gape small; jaws almost equal, or the 
lower a little the longest, with a row of blunt cutting teeth 
round each jaw; eyes separate, the lower eye a little in 
advance. Scales over the body and cheeks, but none before 
the eyes, of moderate size, with plain edges, and easily 
removed from their attachments. The lateral line at first 
descends slightly, afterwards straight. Ventral fins separate 
from the anal. The dorsal begins above the eye, widest at 
the middle, as is the anal opposite to it, the rays marked 
