HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



177 



We have hauled in at least a couple of hundred of 

 young Pout no bigger than minnows, and every one 

 of them has died of suffocation, from being dragged 

 through the water and smothered up in the great 

 bundle of weed and rubbish collected by the Trawl ; 

 we find them dead on shaking out the cob. Here 

 are a lot of young Clupeidce too (the Herring tribe), 

 all dead and done for : what would these have been 

 worth had they escaped the fatally fine meshes of 

 the murderous prawn-trawl, and lived on to matu- 

 rity ? The young of the Pout, the Herring, and the 

 Whiting die on the slightest provocation; the 

 young Pout, especially, rarely reaches the surface 

 alive. 



We have a "Five-bearded Rockling," Motella 

 quinquecirrata, one of the Gadidce. ; a good eatable 

 fish about a foot long : sometimes we may find one 

 amongst the stones at low water. Here is another 

 of the same great family, " the Coal-fish," Merlangus 

 carbonarius, one of the most voracious of the class ; 

 whence the Cornishmen have named it the Rauning 

 {i.e. ravening) Pollack : it grows to a large size, 

 even to thirty pounds, and is caught in immense 

 quantities ; although somewhat coarse, it must be 

 considered an important member of the group, on 

 account of the bulk of meat it supplies. 



And now let us look at these flapping " Floun- 

 ders," more commonly called Plat-fish,— Pleuronec- 

 tidee (TrXevpd, side ; vijKTqg, fin) as they are 

 improperly named, the fins in question being in 

 reality the vertical fins,— viz., the "dorsal" and 

 "anal." These animals being destined to live at 

 the bottom of the sea, present a very remarkable 

 adaptation of structure. " To an ordinary observer 

 the Pleuronedida would seem to have their bodies 

 flattened and spread out horizontally, so that while 

 resting upon their broad and expanded bellies, their 

 eyes, situated upon the back of the head, are thus 

 disposed for the purpose of watching what passes 

 in the water above them ; and this, the vulgarly- 

 received opinion, is considerably strengthened by 

 the fact that what is usually called the belly is 

 white and colourless, while the back is darkly 

 coloured, and sometimes even richly variegated." 

 "The great peculiarity of their structure is the 

 want of symmetry between the lateral halves of 

 the body, arising from the anomalous circumstance 

 that both the eyes are placed upon the same side of 

 the head. Their cranium, indeed, is composed of 

 the same bones as that of an ordinary fish, but the 

 two lateral halves are not equally developed ; and 

 the result is such a distortion of the whole frame- 

 work of the face, that both the orbits are trans- 

 ferred to the same side of the mesial line of the 

 back." Some of them have the eyes and the 

 coloured scales on the right side ; these — viz., the 

 Plaice, the Plounder, the several kinds of Dab, the 

 Pluke, the several kinds of Sole, and the mighty 

 Holibut— are called Dextral fishes ; while the Tur- 



bot, the Brill, the Topknots, the Whiff, and the 

 Scaldfish, being coloured, and having the eyes on 

 the left side, are called Sinistral. All the fishes of 

 this class are exceedingly tenacious of life. 



Fig. 96. The Dab {Plaiessa limunda). 



We are indebted to Messrs. Cassell, Petter, and 

 Galpin for this illustration of the Dab, as well as for 

 fig. 88 : they are taken from "The Ocean World," 

 a work abounding in spirited life-like sketches, 

 which we commend to lovers of Marine zoology. 



First we find we have taken a Plaice, Plaiessa 

 vulgaris: it is readily distinguished from its con- 

 geners by the large bright orange-red spots dis- 

 persed all over the body : when young, there is 

 often a dark spot in the centre of the orange one. 

 The scales are small and smooth, and the right side 

 is of a rich brown. Next we find the Common 

 Dab, Plaiessa limanda : it is remarkable for the 

 roughness of its scales; hence it is sometimes called 

 the Rough Dab : its specific name (limanda) is 

 derived from the Latin lima, a file : the colour of 

 the right side is a uniform pale brown. We have 

 yet another, the Lemon Dab, Plaiessa microcephala, 

 with smooth scales and a light yellowish-brown 

 side, with darker brown specks ; the lips and edges 

 of the operculum are yellow. Here is a Sole, Solea 

 vulgaris, the most delicately-rich and firm-fleshed 

 of all the flat fishes : examples have been known to 

 weigh nine pounds. Specimens called " Reversed 

 Soles " (i.e. sinistral, instead of dextral) are not 

 uncommon ; the coloured side is of a greenish- 

 brown, the lateral line straight; the right eye 

 almost touches the angle of the mouth. There are 



