47 



sballow parts of the Enkluiizerzand ; there one wouldbe most 

 likely to find them At those places the »kuil" nets, however, do 

 not fish aud wheii one was fishing there accidentally, I could 

 uot approach it with the stearaer at my disposal. To show the 

 correctness of my explanation 1 he^^ to poiut out moreover, that the 

 little flatfishes which I collected at observation 49, 63, 71 aud 87 

 were all of them little plaices , aud that the bottom over which 

 the »kuiluet" weut on those occasions in every case was a soft one. 



On the contrary I ouly got little flounders on studying the 

 contents of a net which was trailed over the Kamperzand as far as 

 the south of the Ketel (Observ. N° 86). I took Ï4 the first the 

 best of the little flatfishes and 13 of them were little flounders. 

 When full-grown flounders are taken with the drift-net, with the 

 silken-nets or with the long-line, it does not matter so much 

 what the bottom is : when once in the season for the flounder- 

 fishing with driftnets, you see it performed through the whole sea. 



A curious myth prevails in the Zuiderzee, viz. that it is pos- 

 sible to make out at once even with the smallest flatfishes whether 

 they are flounders or plaices: the flounder being always right- 

 handed , the plaice lefthauded. This, however, is an error : as a 

 rule both fishes are righthanded (that means bearing the eyes at 

 the right side). ï uever observed a single specimen with the eyes 

 at the left side in all the small plaices I investigated, neither 

 did I meet with a single such specimen among the larger ones. 

 However such specimens occur as well among plaices as among 

 flounders. Another story is, that the flounder are right-handed 

 or left-handed according to sex »dass die manulichen and weib- 

 lichen Flunder verkehrt zu einander sind" (Möbius und Heincke 

 1. c. p. 96.) and this also was told me on the Zuiderzee, though it 

 lacks foundation also. 



Smelt. This little Salmonoid is spread through the whole Zui- 

 derzee; it is caught with »kwak" and »wonderkuil" nets, with the 

 »dwarskuil" and so-called smelt-» driftnets", finally also under 

 the ice with a kind of fixed net. It is one of the most commou 



