FLAT-FISHES. 105 



freckled tint, pale orange brown, with darker spots. 1 

 The fisherman considers them marketable if they are 

 not less than four or five inches long, and bundles them 

 into his common depository, under the title of tea- dabs, 

 a name which sufficiently indicates their destiny. 



Now every one has looked at hundreds of pairs of 

 soles raw and ready, but perhaps not all have ever ade- 

 quately remarked the singular anomaly presented by 

 their structure, or are aware how unique their tribe is 

 among animals. That one surface is positively coloured, 

 w r hile the other is fleshy white, is no great matter ; for 

 many creatures, and fishes in particular, are darker 

 above and paler below. The flat Rays are equally ab- 

 ject, and show a like contrast of hues ; but, structurally, 

 the colours in the Sole are not respectively on the back 

 and belly, though they are certainly above and below. 

 These fishes, in fact, swim and lie on one side; and so 

 they have one side dark and one side light. 



This habit, however, imposed upon them, involves 

 other very important aberrations from ordinary forms. 

 Let us suppose that the eyes had been placed, like 

 those of the Chsetodons (very thin, wide, and flat fishes 

 of the tropical seas), one on each side of the head. That 

 eye which belonged to the white or inferior side, would 

 be rendered useless, since it would be almost perpe- 



1 Solea vulgaris, and S. pegusa. 



