THE POLE, 531 



reaches tliirteen or fourteen. Its food consists of crusta- 

 ceans and other marine animals, possihly also of small 

 fish. Professor Sundevall has found shrimps {Falcrmon, 

 Mysis) in its stomach; and Kroyer, species of Ophiura, 

 as well as hivalve molluscs [Cardiiim, Tellhia, &c.), and of 

 fishes, Gobius miuutus. In the summer, like some of its 

 congeners, its resorts are in comparatively shallow water, 

 but during winter it is met with at times at a depth of 

 thirty fathoms. Nilsson and others believe this fish to 

 spawn in May and June, but Kroyer, not until mid-winter. 

 He draws this conclusion from having in the month of 

 September found the ovisacs of the female tolerably de- 

 veloped. This fish is, we are told, always lean, and for the 

 table is looked on as much inferior to most of the other 

 species of flounder. 



The Pole, or Craig Fluke {Svart-fenad SMdda, or black- 

 finned flounder, Sw. ; SJiJcBi'-ising, or rock-dab, Dan.; P. 

 ■saxicola. Fab. ; P. Tola, Cuv.), the least numerous of the 

 Scandinavian flounders, is somewhat rare in the Bohus 

 Skargard ; as also on the more southern parts of the western 

 coast of Sweden, the Sound included. In the Baltic it has 

 not hitherto been recognized ; and the same is the case on 

 the western shores of Norway, though, from being an 

 Icelandic fish, Kroyer entertains little doubt of its being 

 found there. Its usual length is from sixteen to eighteen 

 inches, but is said to attain to two feet. " Excepting that, 

 as its Danish name denotes, it keeps to a rocky bottom, 

 its habits," Kroyer remarks, " are altogether unknown 

 to us. At times it is captured together with the Plaice 

 in five to eight fathoms water. It is not tenacious of life, 

 as proved by the fishermen never bringing it alive to 

 Copenhagen. I have not been able to procure the young 

 of this species — of such I speak as were less than twelve 

 inches in length. Notwithstanding, the adults are taken 

 the whole year round, and it would therefore seem as if 



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