FLAT-FISHEf* 



many similar facts in nature are known. Doubtless this trans- 

 formation has long ago become a matter of inheritance; but the 

 fact that it is acquired at a very early age, argues that the ancestral 

 variation which resulted in the production of this character, 

 must have also begun early in the life of the animal. The young 

 flat-fishes of our coast frequent shallow areas, where the water 

 becomes quite warm, and there, in accordance with the general 

 fact noticed above, may arise the conditions which, seconded by 

 inheritance, have modified them in this manner. 



