SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



387 



Color: above light olive, with many small white spots on body and vertical fins; sides with 12 

 to 15 large dark spots with white edges, (dentatus, toothed.) 



The summer flounder is the most valuable of the flat-fishes found along the 

 eastern seaboard of the United States. Its range extends from Massachusetts to 

 Florida, but it is most abundant northward, and is gradually replaced by Para- 

 lichthys lethostigmus southward. The species is often found in shallow water, 

 but is also caught in water as deep as 20 fathoms. It has the habit of ascending 

 streams, and is often taken far from salt water. At Beaufort the fish is called 

 "sand flounder" or "mud flounder" according to its color, although the fisher- 

 men do not believe there is any real difference. Summer flounder and plaice are 

 names employed to the northward; in the eighteenth century "plaice" was used 

 in North and South Carolina, and is probably the best designation for the species. 



Fig. 178. Summer Flounder; Plaice. Paralichthys dentatus. 



Excepting the halibut, this is the largest of all our east coast flat-fishes. 

 The maximum weight reaches, and may possibly exceed, 30 pounds, but the 

 average is only 3 pounds, although fish weighing 7 to 10 pounds are not rare. 

 The food comprises small fish, squid, crabs, shrimp, mollusks, sand-dollars, and 

 other animals. While the fish usually takes its food on or near the bottom, it 

 not infrequently pursues schools of small fish at the surface. 



At Beaufort this fish is found throughout the summer, but not abundantly, 

 and is also occasionally taken in winter; it is most numerous and is taken in 

 largest numbers in fall, when it is sometimes observed in schools. Some of the 

 local fishermen say the flounders then "school up to go away". Dr. Coker con- 

 tributes the following account of the flounder fishery at Beaufort : 



"Flounder-lighting" or "floundering" is much practiced on calm dark nights in summer 

 and early fall. In the place of a mast in the skiff used for this purpose, there is a post, bearing 

 an iron arm which may be rotated. The end of the arm bears a wire firebasket, in which a 

 bright blaze is kindled, from "lightwood" or pine-kots, etc. The "flounderer" stands in the 

 bow, and, as he or a companion poles the boat along the shores or around the marshes or shoals, 

 takes the flounders with a gig or spear. A flounderer of long e3q)erience tells me that these 



