The sole is a fish in great request for the table, and, except the turbot, is usually considered the most firm and delicate fish of its tribe. Though exposed for sale during nearly the whole year, it is in highest perfection about Midsummer. By the ancient laws of the Cinque Ports no person was allowed to catch soles from the first of November to the fifteenth of March; nor was any one permitted to use nets betwixt sun-setting and sun-rising, that the fish might not be disturbed in their feeding. Soles when good are of thick form, and their under parts are cream-coloured; if the latter are bluish, the fish are flabby and bad. These, unlike most other fish, may be kept several days, even in hot weather, without becoming putrid; and they are always skinned before they are eaten. The _skins_ are sometimes dried, and used for the clarifying of coffee. 222. _The TURBOT_ (Pleuronectes maximus, Fig. 66) _is a species of flat fish, distinguished by its eyes being on the left side, the body being broad, marbled with brown and yellow above, and rough with bony protuberances._ _The weight of these fish is from four or five to betwixt twenty and thirty pounds._ _They are chiefly caught in the European and Mediterranean seas._ It has been calculated that more than 10,000 pounds' weight of turbots are annually consumed in London. These are chiefly caught off the northern coasts of England, and off the coast of Holland. Notwithstanding the high repute of turbot for the tables of the most wealthy and luxurious inhabitants of this country, it has only of late been relished in Scotland, and many persons there still prefer the holibut (216) to it. There are now, or were very lately, living in one of the coast-towns of Scotland several poor people who were accustomed to derive a great part of their subsistence from the turbots which the fishermen threw away upon the beach as of no value. A general officer in the English army first taught the inhabitants of Fifeshire that these fish were eatable; and astonished the fishermen of that country by offering so great a sum as a shilling a piece for the largest of them.