484 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



authors will stand the test of time more successfully. Huntsman's statement 

 that the dorsal rays average more numerous in plaice from Bay of Islands, New- 

 foundland, than in those caught on the New Brimswick shore of the Gulf of .St. 

 Lawrence, with Welsh's note of a variation of 7 in the number of dorsal and of 6 in 

 the anal rays in one lot of fish caught off Gloucester, illustrates this variability. 

 Notwithstanding the low latitude of the locality of capture (about 42° 30' N.) this 

 same lot contained a specimen with the largest number of fin rays yet reported 

 (96 dorsal and 77 anal) . Until many more specimens are examined all that can be 

 said is that hereditary local races may perhaps exist oflF different parts of the 

 American shore line, though it may prove that the structure of the scales, in con- 

 nection with the length of the fish, will give a clue to the local origin of a given 

 specimen, for the rate of growth is governed by the temperature of the water (p. 486) . 



General range. — This is a very common fish on both sides of the North Atlantic, 

 its range closely paralleling that of the halibut. It is found off the whole North 

 American coast from the Straits of Belle Isle, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the 

 region of the Grand Banks to Cape Cod, and across the whole breadth of the con- 

 tinental shelf from close inshore out to the 100-fathom contour. West of Cape 

 Cod plaice are caught in the Woods Hole region, off Marthas Vineyard, and off 

 Narragansett Bay, which is in general their western limit." It has not been recorded 

 from the eastern coast of Labrador north of Belle Isle though common in west 

 Greenland waters, hence may shun the very low temperatures of the Labrador 

 current, as seems to be true of the halibut. Nor is it known from the Arctic coasts 

 of either continent except in the comparatively warm water off the Murman coast. 

 In European waters it ranges from Iceland and Spitzbergen to the North Sea, 

 where it is an important commercial fish, and to the west Baltic, with the English 

 Channel as its southern boundary. 



The American plaice may be described as boreal-Arctic in its relation to tem- 

 perature, reacliing its liighest development in water of 35° to 45°, able to live, 

 however, in the lowest Polar temperatures (29° to 30°), and finding the upper 

 temperature limit to its regular occurrence at 50° to 55°. 



In different seas plaice live through a wide range of salinity from 30 per mille 

 or lower in the Baltic to upwards of 34 per mille, but, so far as we are aware, 

 they are never found in water which could be described as brackish. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine.^' — One would hardly guess how common and 

 generally distributed the plaice is in suitable depths and on suitable bottom in 

 the Gulf, from reading what has been pubUshed on Gulf of Maine fishes, nor do the 

 local fishery statistics help in tliis respect, for plaice are combined there with other 

 flatfish as "flounders " This is not as familiar a fish as are the winter and smooth 

 flounders (pp. 501 and 508), not being common in water shallower than 15 to 20 

 fathoms, but it is probably the most abundant of all Gulf of Maine flatfishes below 

 that depth, except, perhaps, the witch. Plaice are recorded, in print, from Province- 

 town, from Massachusetts Bay, off Cape Ann, in Ips%vich Bay, near Boon Island, 



" We find no credible records from New York or from New Jersey, those mentioned by DeKay being market fish which might 

 have come from anywhere to the eastward. 



u Huntsman (1918) gives an interesting account of this fish in Canadian waters. 



