Little Stories of Strange Fishes 323 



All this is done while the little flounder is an inch or two 

 in length. 



The halibut is the largest of flounders living in the cold 

 seas of the north, both Atlantic and Pacific. It comes down 

 to Cape Flattery on our side and to Hakodate in Japan. In 

 the Atlantic it reaches Cape Cod and perhaps to the coast of 

 Brittany. It reaches a length of eight feet and a weight of 

 hundreds of pounds. When it is found it is likely to be 

 abundant, its favorite range being about offshore banks of 

 no great depth. There is such a bank off the mouth of 

 Puget Sound, where many may be taken, and north of Van- 

 couver Island; there are numerous banks in Canadian 

 waters, and plenty of others farther north of our own. 



The halibut takes the hook cheerfully and readily with 

 almost anything for bait. I once caught one at Karluk 

 which had its stomach full of ham and ship's biscuit, lately 

 thrown over from the galley. The flesh of the halibut is 

 white and of fair quality, but like most of the flounders it 

 is without much flavor. 



Other large flounders are sometimes wrongly called hali- 

 but. But the true halibut will be known from its concave 

 tail, the middle rays being the shortest. Its eyes are also 

 always on the right side. 



Our Monterey halibut, or bastard halibut, is a big fish too, 

 but seldom exceeds three feet in length. It ranges much 

 farther south, and in case of doubt, it may be known from 

 true halibut by the form of its tail, which is double concave, 

 the middle rays as well as the outer ones being lengthened. 

 In the halibut the tail has a regular moon-shaped curve be- 

 hind. In the " Monterey halibut " the eyes are normally 

 on the left side, but very often on the right, a piece of care- 

 lessness which is very unusual in the making of flounders. 



Almost all other kinds are either right- or left-eyed, always 

 the same, whichever way it may be. 



The porcupine fish lives in all warm seas, the whole world 

 around. It reaches a length of about two feet when fully 



