Turbot

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

in ichthyology, Rhombus maximum, the most highly ghly valuable of the Pleuronectidæ , or flat fishes, for the table. The turbot is a broad fish, scaleless, with numerous flattened. conical tubercles on the upper side; the lower eye is a little in front of the upper eye, and the lateral line makes a semicircular curve above the pectoral fin. In color it varies from gray to brown, often with spots of a darker hue. Turbot are migratory fish, traveling in companies where the bottom is sandy. They feed chiefly on small fish, crabs, and shell fish; but the bait used is always some fish of bright color and tenacious of life, for, though turbot are very voracious, they will never touch a bait that is not perfectly fresh. W 50 pounds. In the English Channel turbot are taken by trawling. The turbot was known and prized by the Romans, and the fourth satire of Juvenal celebrates the fact that Domitian convoked the Senate to decide how a monster turbot that had been brought to him should be cooked. Weight from 5 to TURCO-ITALIAN WAR. The acquisition quis of territory in north Africa by France shortly after the Franco-Prussian War had created deep resentment in Italy, which feared the loss of prestige on the Mediterranean. Especially alarming to Italy was the seizure of Tunis in 1881, by France. This incident, more than any other single factor, led Italy to enter the TRIPLE ALLIANCE (q. v.) with Austria and Germany. Thus protected, Italy set forth to acquire possessions in Africa, in rivalry with France. To weaken the Triple Alliance, however, France hastened to arrive at an agreement with Italy over their separate spheres of influence in Africa. Thus doubly strengthened , Italy declared war doul against Turkey on Sept. 29, 1911, choosing that time probably because of the disorder in the internal affairs brought about by the Young Turk Revolution. Italy immediately landed troops in Tripoli, and Cyrenaica, which was the tory in Africa coveted. Here the war was fought out, and because of the difficulty of the Turks in bringing troops to this distant possession, the Italians were able to gain a long series of victories . On Oct. 18, 1912, Turkey signed a treaty surrendering this territory to Italy, at Lausanne, Switzerland. Throughout the war all the other European countries had maintained an attitude of strict neutrality, with the exception of Russia, which had vetoed the Italian plans for an attack on the Dardanelles. There can be no doubt that Turkey would not have signed the Lausanne treaty had it not been for the fact that already Montenegro had fired the first shot of the campaign of invasion already threatened by the Balkan states.