CHAPTER XL 

 LITTLE STORIES OF STRANGE FISHES 



HEN Apollon Bowedursky and Jacob Kikuchin 

 caught their six-foot halibut off Tolstoi Head on 

 the Island of St. Paul in the Bering Sea, they 

 skulked stealthily home, entering the village by 

 the back way. It was not easy to induce them to bring out 

 their fish to have it photographed as we see it here. They 

 didn't want Dr. Jordan to know they had it, for fear that 

 " he would get it and put it into alcohol." But Dr. Jordan 

 did not get the fish, for he had no cask big enough to hold 

 it, and all he took was the picture, and some of its measure- 

 ments. 



The halibut is the largest of the great tribe of flounders. 

 You will know the flounder kind from any other fish, be- 

 cause its head is so twisted about that both its eyes are on 

 the same side of the head, and none at all on the other side. 

 It swims flat with the eyed side up. That side is brown, 

 while.the under side, which lies next to the bottom, is always 

 white. Most of the time, the flounders lie flat on the bottom, 

 moving slowly. Most of them have large mouths with 

 strong teeth, and are very voracious. 



When a flounder is first hatched it has the head symmet- 

 rical with an eye on either side. It then swims up and 

 down in the water like any other fish. But it soon becomes 

 lazy and rests its breast against the bottom. Then it begins 

 to lean over, to the one side or the other, and as it tips over 

 the eye of the lower side begins to move forward. It passes 

 around to the other side, little by little, across the front of 

 the head, until it reaches its place next to the other eye. 



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