396 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
fishermen regard quite a distinct organism as the spawn of plaice, 
as we shall see later on. 
The general set of the tides or currents in the North Sea is well 
known to be towards the Heligoland Bight, whither most floating 
wreckage ultimately finds its way, and it seems natural to suppose 
that the floating eggs of the plaice liberated in the open sea, to a 
great extent, drift in that direction ; the same must be the case with 
the younger and more helpless of the larvee. I am far from supposing, 
however, that the current is by any means the sole determining 
factor in the distribution of the very young forms, since we do not 
find on the eastern side the young of several species which must, in 
their earliest condition, have been exposed to exactly the same tidal 
influences as the plaice. 
In any case the very youngest free stages of the fish do not seem 
to occur very close inshore on either side of the sea, and most of the 
phases of the metamorphosis appear to be passed at some little 
distance from land, or at least in tolerably deep water. The small 
transparent forms, though capable, like the young turbot, &c., of 
swimming at the surface, appear to be commoner at the bottom ; at 
least I have found them so, but my fishing operations have very 
seldom been favoured with that calm, warm weather which appears 
to have the greatest effect in bringing young flat-fish to the surface. 
By the time the young fish has acquired the adult form, a 
process which is accomplished some time in the late spring or early 
summer, it will be found, on any coast with which I am acquainted, 
at the extreme margin, either on the open sandy beach or in an 
estuary, in company with shrimps and a certain but much smaller 
number of dabs, sole, turbot, &c. The little plaice is now about an 
inch long, and from that size up to about three incnes the young 
fish remain very close to the beach throughout the warmer parts of 
the year. Indeed, it seems probable that those which fail to reach 
a larger size before the winter remain in the same situation 
throughout that season. Some at least are obtainable there at the 
coldest season, and I have found none elsewhere. Possibly they 
bury themselves to some extent in the sand or mud, but I do not 
think that they go out to sea, though they may possibly move into 
rather deeper parts of an estuary than they frequent in summer. 
As the size increases there is a gradual withdrawal from the 
immediate neighbourhood of the margin ; thus, in the Humber, there 
are only a few fish, comparatively speaking, at the margin which 
exceed a length of about 4 inches, while in the deeper parts there 
are not very many fish of less than 4 inches. Plaice do not 
frequent the deepest parts of the Humber to any great extent, but 
in moderate depths, from two to six fathoms, one meets with all 
