834 PECULIARITIES OF PLAICE FROM DIFFERENT FISHING GROUNDS. 



According to Pallas* description P. cicatricosus differs but little from 

 glacialis. The specimens were collected in the sea between Kamtchatka 

 and America, It is said to be more oblong, the length being three 

 times the breadth without the fins. There is a rough osseous ridge 

 behind the eyes. On the upper side tlie scales are far apart and 

 scarcely projecting, except that every third or fifth over all the body and 

 operculum has projecting setae on its margin ; the middle fin -rays are 

 also roughened with slight projecting points. Length of the specimen 

 was 8iV inches, the breadth 2\9i inches ; the number of dorsal rays 59, 

 anal 36. It is clear that the two forms thus described belong to the same 

 species, and it is difficult to decide which was the more spinulated of 

 the two. 



Eichardson states that he identified as the P. glacialis of Pallas a 

 flounder taken in Bathurst's Inlet, which is on the north coast of North 

 America. He afterwards obtained two specimens from the same region 

 from Dr. Rae. They had all the characters described by Pallas, except 

 the roughness of the middle rays of the dorsal and ventral fins. 

 Eichardson suggests for the first time that this may be a sexual 

 peculiarity. He states that the parietal and suprascapular space— in 

 other words, the post-ocular ridge — is divided into elevated granular 

 surfaces; the scales are small and without spinules, except along the 

 bases of the dorsal and ventral fins on the upper side. The length was 

 7*5 inches ; the dor^i-al rays 58, the ventral 43. 



In the British Museum collection there are two specimens identified 

 with Eichardson's species, whicli Dr. Giinther named Franklinii, con- 

 sidering it distinct from glacialis. One of these is 22-8 cm. long (9 

 inches), and according to the label came from Dr. Eae's collection. It 

 has evidently been dried, and is moth-eaten; but the spinulated scales 

 could be felt both on the fin-rays and on the body. The other specimen 

 has also been dried, and was too hard and stiff for detailed examination ; 

 but this also has some spinulated scales on the fin-rays and the edge of 

 the body. This specimen was labelled, "From the Haslar collection." 

 Probably one of these specimens, or both, were those examined by 

 Eichardson, whose description of the spinulation in such case was 

 incorrect. They are certainly of the same species as the glacialis and 

 cicatricosus of Pallas. 



The first description of specimens of the same species on the east 

 coast of North America is that of Storer, in 1843, who gives it the 

 name Platessa glabra. He says the body is perfectly smooth, and 

 mentions no spinulated scales on the fins. But the number of the 

 fin-rays (D. 54, A. 39), and the character of the post-ocular ridge 

 (naked and rough, continued back to the superior angle of the opercu- 

 lum, where it is much larger, and terminates in an obtuse point\ show 



