THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 347 
in the way. Half a barrel of flatfish was taken out of the 
stomach of a single halibut. 
This fish, though commanding good prices, does not form 
a Labrador export, the banking fishery being carried on by 
our American cousins. These come to us as early as April, 
sail round the south end of the ice-floe, and so reach the 
banks; or, if leaving in February, make straight for the 
south coast of Greenland and try to get north by keeping 
outside the two currents of drifting coast-ice. On one 
occasion the skipper of a Boston vessel came to a hospital 
before our harbour ice had all gone, and we gave him a 
drive round on the ice with our dog-sleigh, as he had never 
seen dogs travelling. The main impression on his mind 
seemed to be ‘‘To think we had ripe strawberries before I 
left home a fortnight ago !”’ 
In Europe and America the dab (Hippoglossoides 
limandoides) flourishes in both cold and warm waters. 
In his youth he is a free-swimming, upright fish, but takes 
to lying on one side on the bottom. He shows his adapt- 
ability by causing the under eye to travel round over his 
nose, as this eye would be useless looking down on the 
ground. He has fine, shiny scales. In Dublin he is called 
the smeareen, and is much eaten by the poorer classes. 
On the New England coast he passes as the “‘mud dab,” 
but on his arrival in New York he further shows his adapt- 
ability by assuming the name of the ‘American sole.” 
In Labrador he is classed with the “‘offal’’ and contempt- 
uously thrown away. The dogs, however, appreciate his 
qualities better, and one often in the spring sees a dog 
wading about looking or feeling for the dab in the mud, 
and then quickly diving down and bringing the struggling, 
