_Turlehydes._--During the great famine in Ireland land in 1331, it is said
that--
"The people in their distress met with an unexpected and providential
relief. For about the 24th June, a prodigious number of large sea fish,
called turlehydes, were brought into the bay of Dublin, and cast on
shore at the mouth of the river Dodder. They were from thirty to forty
feet long, and so bulky that two tall men placed one on each side of
the fish could not see one another."--_The History and Antiquities of
the City of Dublin from the Earliest Accounts_, by Walter Harris, 1766,
p. 265.
This account is compiled from several records of the time, some of which
still exist. As the term _turlehydes_ is not known to Irish scholars, can
any of the readers of "N. & Q." say what precise animal is meant by it, or
give any derivation or reference for the term?