LONG FLOUNDER. 319 



The whole length of this specimen is seven inches and 

 three-quarters ; the length of the head one inch and one 

 quarter, and compared to the whole length of the fish, as one 

 to six ; the greatest breadth of the body, dorsal and anal 

 fins included, is one inch and three-quarters, and compared 

 to the whole length of the fish, as one to four and a half; 

 the breadth, including the dorsal and anal fin, is to the whole 

 length as three to eight. The body very thin, and very 

 much elongated in form ; the lateral line passing straight 

 from the tail along the middle of the fish till it approaches 

 the operculum, then rises in a slight curve over the base of 

 the pectoral fin. The scales on the body are of medium 

 size, oval, with numerous radiating striae on the free portion. 

 The fins deep, and the tail long. 



The outline of the whole head is rather circular, the mouth 

 oblique from below upwards, and below the line of the lon- 

 gitudinal axis of the body ; the jaws nearly equal in length, 

 each furnished with a single row of small and regular teeth ; 

 the eyes rather large, the upper eye, or that on the left side, 

 being a little in advance of the lower, or that on the right 

 side ; the inter-orbital bony ridge prominent ; the boundary 

 lines of the preoperculuni and operculum forming two con- 

 centric portions of circles. The pectoral fin, arising imme- 

 diately behind the edge of the operculum, is about half as 

 long as the head ; the ventral fin, in a line under the edge of 

 the operculum, is about half as long as the pectoral fin. The 

 dorsal fin, commencing with short rays in a line over the eye, 

 is at its greatest elevation about the middle of the fish, and 

 from thence diminishes gradually to the end, which is on the 

 fleshy portion of the tail, and short of the origin of the caudal 

 rays ; the anal fin begins close to the ventral fin, immediately 

 behind the post anal spine ; the first and last rays short, 

 those in the middle of the fin the longest, and the fin ends 

 on the same plane as the dorsal. The tail is elongated; its 



