PLATESSA. 213 



about the ordinary number of bones, entering into 

 the composition of other fishes. Sometimes we 

 find one with the eyes reversed.* 



The flat fish of this family appear to be univer- 

 sally spread over the globe, in all seas and in all 

 climates, affording an excellent, nutritious and 

 wholesome food. Linnaeus gathered the whole 

 family into one genus, but the celebrated Cuvier 

 subdivided it into several sub-genera. 



GEN. PLATESSA. 



Flounder, — Platessa Vulgaris. Being with- 

 out the swimming-bladder, they naturally keep 

 near the bottom. Indeed, organized as they obvi- 



*At St Petersburg, it was formerly customary for the bish- 

 ops to bless the fishes annually, and in France it was onae 

 gravely told, that when a certain St Christopher blessed the 

 inhabitants of the deep, the fishes came round the holy man 

 to listen, but the flounder, in derision, made wry faces ; upon 

 which the speaker feeling highly insulted, condemned the 

 whole race thereafter to be screwed into their present distort- 

 ed condition. 



In Constantinople, says Mr Goodell, a missionary, now re- 

 siding in that celebrated city, is a Greek Church, or the ruins 

 of one, called the fish- church. It is outside the Siliviia gate, 

 where the Turks entered on taking Constantinople. At that 

 moment, some priests were frying fish for dinner, which 

 were so frightened, when the priests were killed, that they 

 jumped out of the pan, " not into the fire," but into a pond 

 under the present ruins, where, if common report be true, 

 they are still seen swimming about completely cooked on one 

 side. 



