176 



FJSH GALLERY. 



side of the body. The right and left jaws of this fish are almost 

 equally developed, and the teeth are much more powerful than in 

 Flat-fishes generally. 

 Halibut. After Psettodes, the least specialised of the Flat-fishes is Hippo- 

 glossus, a genus including the Halibut, 754. In Hippoglossus 

 the eyes are on the right side, the mouth is terminal and large, 

 and teeth are present on both sides of the mouth. The body is 

 long and comparatively narrow, and the dorsal fin commences 

 above the more dorsally placed of the two eyes. The lateral 

 line has a slight curve ; the scales are cycloid. The Halibut 

 inhabits the deeper waters along the southern shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean. It occurs off Spitzbergen, Norway, Iceland, 

 Newfoundland, Alaska, California and Kamschatka. It is taken 

 chiefly on long lines, at depths ranging from 50 to 100 fathoms. 

 About 150,000 cwts. of Halibut, valued at £300,000, are landed 

 in Britain annually, mainly from the Iceland and Faroe banks. 

 The Halibut is the largest of the Flat-fishes and commonly 

 attains a length of six or seven feet ; a specimen six feet long 

 (1036) is shown on Table 49. 



Hippoglossoides, represented by the Long Rough Dab, Hippo- 

 glossoides limandoides, 763, a fish of 12 or 15 inches in length, 

 living in rather deep water in the north European seas, resembles 

 Hippoglossus in that the eyes are on the right side and the mouth 

 is terminal and large, with teeth on both sides ; but the anterior 

 end of the body is not much narrowed ; the dorsal and ventral 

 edges are rather straight ; the scales are ctenoid ; the lateral line 

 is straight. 



In the genus Rhombus the mouth is large and terminal, with 

 teeth on both sides, the eyes are on the left side, and the ventral 

 eye is anterior to the dorsal. The shape of the body is rhomboidal, 

 the middle of the body being very broad ; the lateral line has a 

 semicircular curve anteriorly. The Turbot and Brill belong to 

 this genus, the former being known as Rhombus maximus (756 

 and 757, fig. 83 C, and the latter as Rhombus Icevis (759 

 and 760). The Turbot differs from the Brill in having no 

 ordinary scales but pointed tubercles scattered in the skin 

 (compare the tubercles 758 and the scales 761). It is broader 

 than the Brill in proportion to its length. The Turbot ranges 

 from the Mediterranean to the southern part of Scotland and 



Turbot 

 and Brill. 



