Sometimes a fish aboue half a yard long like a butt[79] or soale called asprage wch I haue known taken about Cromer.
[79] The "asprage" (or it may be "a sprage") may possibly be the Dab, Pleuranectes limanda, which Rondeletius calls Passer asper. I do not find that species mentioned otherwise, and a great many are taken by the Cromer and Sheringham fishermen.
[Fol. 31.] [See Roller ante [p. 30].]
[Fol. 32.] Sepia or cuttle fish[80] [smear] & great plentie of the bone or shellie substance which sustaineth the whole bulk of that soft fishe found com̄only on the shoare.
[80] Of the various species of the Cephalopoda, Sepia officinalis, is more often represented by its calcareous dorsal plate than by the entire animal, for large numbers of these "cuttle-bones" are sometimes strewed along the shore for miles. The Squid, Loligo vulgaris, is often met with, sometimes of considerable size. The horny "pen" resembles a short leaf-shaped Roman sword, and Browne's term, "Gladiolus," is quite as appropriate as that of "Calamus." His Polypus is probably Octopus vulgaris, but it is rarely met with on the Norfolk coast.
The Loligo sleue or calamar found often upon the shoare from head to tayle [such crossed out] sometimes aboue an ell long, remarkable for its parretlike bill, the gladiolus or calamus along the back & the notable crystallyne of the eye wch equalleth if not exceedeth the lustre of orientall pearle.
A polypus another kind of the mollia[N] sometimes wee haue met with.
[N] By mollia is meant all soft-bodied shell-less animals.
Lobsters in great number about sheringham and cromer from whence all the country is supplyed.
Astacus marinus pediculi [marini written above] facie[81] found also in that place. with the aduantage of ye long foreclawes about 4 inches long.