318 THE FLOUNDER FAMILY. 



Lerwick, met with a ripe female of 22 lbs. on the 5th May, 

 from Bergen Bank. In this case about ^ a gallon of ripe eggs 

 were obtaiued, but unfortunately the men had removed the roe 

 from the fish the day before he met with them, and all attempts 

 at fertilization failed. When these eggs reached the laboratory 

 they were in excellent condition, and bore handling freely, 

 showing that the eggs of the previous year had been softened. 

 The diameter of these fresh eggs agreed with that given above, 

 viz. fi-om 3'0861 to 38 mm. In none of them was there any 

 indication of a large space within the capsule (perivitelline 

 space) such as occurs in the long rough dab, and as suggested 

 by Mr Holt. 



So far as Britain is concerned, therefore, ripe halibut have 

 been met with chiefly towards the end of April and beginning 

 of May. The ripe males, as in other forms, are considerably 

 smaller than the females, some weighing only 14 lbs. or even 

 less. Moreover the males seem to arrive at maturity somewhat 

 earlier in the season than the females. Fries, Eckstrom and 

 Sundeval consider that the spawning-season in Scandinavia 

 (Bohuslan, &c.) lasts from the end of February to the end of 

 April ; while in Iceland it would appear to spawn from June 

 to August. It thus, they say, nearly agrees with the spawning- 

 season on the east coast of North America. Their view, 

 however, that the halibut generally approaches comparatively 

 shallow places to spawn is perhaps in need of corroboration, 

 since in our country this has not been observed ; nor have the 

 very young stages of the halibut been found in the inshore 

 grounds oq either side of the North Sea. 



The earliest known stage of the halibut is that figured by 

 the able zoologist of the Danish Zoological Station, Dr Petersen, 

 and first mentioned by Collet in his "Norges Fiske" (Plate XII, 

 fig. 10). It was procured in Christiansand, and measured 

 32 mm. (about an inch and three-eighths). It had true rays 

 in the median fins, but the breast-fins were quite larval 

 (immature), so that the authors considered it probably had 

 still to remain in the pelagic or free-swimming condition for 

 some time, as also indicated by the position of the left eye, 

 which has only just commenced to move forward and upward. 



