Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/49

4, 1863.] all the salt waters of the globe, and it is but fair to add are everywhere appreciated. They are caught in “trawl-nets,” a species of fishing which I have before explained in detail, and so great is the demand for them by all classes of society that with the single exception of herrings (and of course sprats), soles stand at the head of the list of fish furnished to the metropolis.

Notwithstanding the apparent smallness of mouth of the sole, it manages to swallow shell-fish, several of which I have taken from a very large fish, measuring two feet two inches and a quarter in length, and caught near Dover. They were small shell-fish of the cockle variety, and about the size of horse-beans, or a little larger. This sole also contained some small particles of a very delicate and fibrous sea-weed.

Calais and Dunkirk are famous for their fine soles, which however I do not think are so favourite an article of food with the French as with our own working classes.

The sole is to be found on a sandy or muddy bottom, the reason of which is obvious.

For sweetness and flavour the small soles or “slips” are superior to the larger ones, but a dish of hot fillets cut from a large thick sole and fried in fine crumbs of bread with an egg, is one of which the equal is hardly to be found, especially when your anchovy sauce is good, and your shrimp ditto well flavoured. A boiled sole, though often seen at table, is, I think, a “mistake,” as would be a boiled smelt or sprat.

Besides Calais and Dunkirk, which places I have before alluded to as furnishing fine soles, Rouen and Dieppe are always found well supplied with this fish, and most of our own Channel ports, Dover, Folkestone, &c., produce them abundantly.

The Hollibut grows often to an enormous size, and I am told has been known to exceed eighty pounds in weight when taken in the North Sea. The fish is in appearance a kind of compromise between the flounder and the turbot, though greatly exceeding both in size, indeed the flounder bears about the same proportion to the hollibut as the chaffinch does to the pheasant. Considerable quantities of hollibut are taken off the Orkney and Shetland Isles, on the lines employed for cod-fishing. Great numbers of skate, tusk, ling, coal-fish, and others are also thus caught. The baits are pieces of fresh herring or mackerel, and shell-fish such as clams or whelks. The hollibut taken are usually cut in pieces and dried and smoked at peat fires. Hollibut may often be seen exposed for sale on the fishmongers’ slabs in the metropolis, but the greater portion of those taken are consumed either by the fishermen themselves, or by the country people of the surrounding districts.

The Turbot is taken with the hook and net, those caught with the hook being the best fish. Turbot are taken in large numbers off Holland and our Yorkshire coast. They are also taken occasionally off all the Channel ports. When the fishery is carried on with hooks, it is pursued in boats called cobles, at least generally so, and the lines employed for taking the fish are similar to those used in the cod-fishery, the hooks being smaller and not so stout. The bait for turbot is the one so attractive to all sorts of salt-water fish, viz., a piece of fresh herring or mackerel. Immense quantities of whiting are taken on the turbot lines, and I have seen them run as heavy as two, three, and four pounds in weight, such as a Londoner has never or rarely seen. I mean real whiting, for it is a fact, that codling are sold in great quantities for whiting to the uninitiated; and let me add, that the flesh of the codling so resembles that of the whiting, that it must be a good judge who could detect the imposture; of course, while the skin of the codling remains on, it would betray the fish, but they are skinned and prepared for cooking with the tail curled round through the eyes, whiting-fashion, and so “made up” they are sent to market and sold in thousands as fine “hook-whiting.” Turbot lines have from 1500 to 3000 hooks on them on the average. That is not each line, but the entire set or “fleet” put together. A “fleet” of lines consists of many single lines put together, and kept in their place beneath the strong run of the current in the same manner as are cod lines. Turbot run sometimes to a great size, and usually lie in deep water with a smooth bottom.

Fine turbot are caught at Torbay, and the coasts of Cornwall and Yorkshire send many to the metropolitan markets. It is only in large cities that there is a ready sale for this fish, as it is by no means a cheap article of food. For my own part, I think turbot overrated fish; but, it is reasonable to suppose, that their noble appearance has done something for their reputation. It is rarely that this fish has any fair chance of being duly appreciated, as it is mostly served up at large dinner-parties, where twenty or thirty people have to be helped, and where only two or three can get their fish hot. All fish are apt to spoil, and get sodden and insipid as they cool.

Although much sought after for dinners of ceremony, yet the turbot, strictly speaking, cannot be termed a “popular” fish, as its comparative scarcity, and consequent high price, confine it exclusively to the tables of the “well-to-do.” The largest turbot that I ever saw weighed about eighteen pounds, but they occasionally run higher. This fish was taken in the Channel, and I saw it alive in the well of a cod-smack, it having been taken on the cod-lines. It was brought to Billingsgate, and died, of course, when the boat got into fresh water. I did not hear the price given for this fish.

The Brill is mostly caught in the “trawl-nets,” and is by some preferred to the turbot. Brill are used as a dinner-dish when they are of good size, and they sometimes fetch a high price. Shrimp sauce is eaten with them, which is, in fact, the proper sauce for all sea-fish, except mackerel, salmon, and turbot. The brill is a very delicate fish, and dies very soon after being taken out of the water. I was once at sea in a “trawling-boat,” when a great glut of brill was taken, and we had more than fifty that fetched from four to six shillings a-piece, besides a great quantity of soles, and one of the finest turbots that I ever saw.

The brill likes deep water with a sandy bottom,