CHAPTER XXXII. 



The Common Plaice. — The Flounder. — The Common and other Dabs.— 

 The Pole.— The Holibut.— The Turbot.— The Brill.— The Topknots. 

 — The Whiff.— The Sole.— The Bimaculated and other Suckers. — 

 The Conger Eel.— The Launces.— The Pipe-Fishes.— The Short Sun- 

 Fish. — The Common Sturgeon. — The Sea Monster. — The Dog-Fishes. 

 —The Sharks.— The Skates.— The Rays.— The Sea Lamprey.— The 

 Myxine. — The Lancelet — And other Malacopteiygious and Plagio- 

 stomous Fishes allied to them. 



T NOW come to the Flat-fislies, which, it is to be 

 -■- observed, number fewer in. the ScandinaviiTn seas 

 than in those of Britain. In the former only thirteen 

 species have hitherto been identified, whilst our own 

 fauna includes as many as eighteen. 



The Common Plaice {Hod-spa fia, or red-spot, Sw. ; Sod- 

 spcBtte, Dan. ; Flatessa vulgaris, Plem.) was common with 

 us and in the Cattegat ; as it also is on the whole of the 

 western coast, from the North Cape to the Sound. It 

 is likewise pretty common in the sovithern parts of the 

 Baltic. Nilsson says it is found in this sea as high up 

 as Stockholm ; but Ekstrom imagines another species of 

 flounder, the P. Flesus, has been mistaken for it. Its usual 

 length is from ten to fourteen inches, but it attains a 

 length of three feet, and a weight of eight pounds. Prom 

 the sleek and comfortable appearance of this monster 



