248 



INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



Fig. 201. PLAICE. 



to the sides of the glass vessel in which they were kept, or 

 cast themselves free and pursue their course. Many of these 

 marine creatures are highly interesting ohjects for observation, 

 and after being kept for a clay or two, may he returned to the 

 sea uninjured; so that death is not the necessary consequence 

 of their temporary imprisonment. 



Pleuronectidce.* To this family belong the Plaice (Platessa 



vulgaris, Fig. 201), the 

 Flounder ( Platessa jlesus) , 

 the Sole (Solea vulgaris), 

 and other well-known flat- 

 fish. Few are perhaps 

 aware of their importance, 

 regarded merely in the 

 light of a marketable com- 

 modity. It is stated that 

 for Turbot (Rhombus 

 maximus, Fig. 202) brought to the London market, the 

 Dutch are paid 80,000 a-year; and that the Danes receive 



from 12,000 to 15, 000, 

 a-year for sauce for this 

 luxury, extracted from one 

 million of lobsters taken on 

 the shores of Norway.! 

 The Turbot is considered 

 to have been the Rhombus 

 of the ancient Romans; 

 and Juvenal alludes in his 

 " Satires " to one of enor- 

 mous size, taken in the reign of Domitian, who ordered a 

 consultation of the senate, to devise the best mode of bringing 

 it to table: 



" No vessel they find fit to hold such a fish, 

 And the senate's convoked to decree a new dish." 



The next family (Gadidce) contains a number of species 

 which yield a most abundant supply of nutritious food, and 

 give employment even on the British coasts to many thousands 

 of hardy boatmen and mariners. It includes the Cod (Fig. 

 203), the Haddock, the Whiting, the Hake, the Ling, and 



* The term is compounded of two Greek words, signifying to swim on 

 one side, which is the well-known movement of these fishes, 

 f Encyclopaedia Brittauica. 



Fig. 202. TURBOT. 



