FLATFISH. 137 
green are so mingled, that the only thing I can 
think of as a comparison is a floating flower-bed, 
and even then the gardener’s art, in grouping, is 
but a bungle contrasted with Nature’s painting! 
There are three species of chirus common 
along the island and mainland coasts. The one 
usually sold is Chirus hexagrammus (Cuv., Reene 
An., ‘ Poiss.,’ pl. 83), the Six-lined Chirus.—Sp. 
Ch.: A skinny tentacle over each orbit; palatine 
teeth none; two muciferous channels, between 
the lateral line and dorsal fin; scales ciliated. 
FiatrisH.—In all the muddy estuaries and 
on the sandy flats about Puget’s Sound, at the 
mouths of the Columbia and Fraser rivers, several 
species of flatfish are found in great abundance. 
These fish have always formed an important 
article of food to all the sea-fishing Indians, and, 
since the influx of white settlers, are caught 
for the supply of the Victoria and San Francisco 
markets. 
Only the larger species are taken with hook 
and line, the smaller flounders being usually 
speared by the Indians. And a pleasant sight 
itis, too, to watch a little fleet of canoes, each 
one slowly paddled by a dusky squaw gliding 
along the sandy shallows, the spearman in the 
bow ‘ prodding’ for the fish hidden in the mud 
