604 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
They are also taken on the Dalmatian coast, and in the neighbour- 
hood of Ragusa. 
The anchovy is only fit for food after being preserved and salted. 
The process of curing commences by throwing it into a strong brine ; 
then, the head and entrails being removed, they are arranged in rows 
in barrels or boxes of tin, in alternate layers of salt and fish ; finally, 
after some days of exposure, they are hermetically,closed and des- 
patched to market. Those prepared on the Provencal coast were 
formerly carried to the fair of Beaucaire, whence they found their 
way all over France, and to many parts of Europe. Now, the 
anchovies cured at Marseilles, and other Provengal ports, are sent 
direct to the various markets of Europe. 
V. ANACANTHINA, 
This sub-order of spineless fish contains four families, of which two, 
the Ammodytide and Ophidiide, are destitute of ventral fins, and two, 
the Gadide and Pleuronectide, which have these organs placed in the 
neighbourhood of the pectorals. Of the first family the best known 
genus is that of Ammodytes ; here the body is elongated and serpent- 
like, having a continuous fin extending along the greater part of the 
back, with another at the opposite side, and a third or forked fin at 
the end of the tail. The muzzle is also long; the lower jaw longer 
than the upper. The Sand-eel, 4. ancea (Fig. 385), buries itself 
in the sand; hence it is called the sand-eel ; it hollows out a burrow 
for itself in the sand with its muzzle to the depth of fifteen or twenty 
inches, where it hunts out worms, on which it feeds, while it shelters 
itself from the jaws of many voracious fishes, which eagerly pursue it 
for its delicate flesh. In appearance the J. dancea is silvery blue, 
brighter on the lower parts than on the upper, the radiating fins on 
the abdomen being alternately white and bluish in colour. 
The Pleuronectida, or Flat-fishes, have the body flat and greatly 
compressed. In the Rays the body is flattened horizontally, while in 
the Pleuronectidze it is compressed laterally. The head of the fishes 
of this order is not symmetrical ; the two eyes are placed on the same 
side ; the two sides of the mouth are unequal. 
To these peculiarities of structure we shall return when we come 
to observe the several types more exactly. In rest, as in motion, the 
flat-fishes are always turned upon their side, and the side turned 
towards the bottom of the sea is that which has no eye. This habit 
of swimming on their side is that to which they owe their name of 
mrevpa’, side, and ve’xT0s, swimmers. 
