DEALF1SH. 
319 
it is sometimes taken in autumn, in the Herring-seines; 
and Day describes a specimen 174 cm. long, which 
was taken in a stake-net oft' Montrose. When the Deal- 
hsh has been found in the Sound itself, it has also 
naturally had a long stretch of comparatively shallow 
water to traverse. The specimen which Lilljeborg 
obtained in 1848 off the coast of Norwegian Finmark, 
was also taken with a dredge, at a depth of 2 or 3 fa- 
thoms; and Nilsson probably refers to this specimen 
when he says that the Dealfish “is sometimes discovered 
lying at the bottom by the fishermen, and is then de- 
scribed as shining like the brightest silver. The fisher- 
men let down a drcigg a and strike the fish, for it is 
a very poor swimmer and by no means quick in its 
movements.” These instances, however, are rare, and 
in the great majority of cases the Dealfish has been 
found cast ashore by the waves or floating in its death- 
struggles at the surface of the water. Up to the present 
time nothing has been found in its stomach to suggest 
the idea that the object of its wanderings is the cap- 
ture of some prey which may have fled to the higher 
regions of the ocean 6 . Collett supposes that most of 
the specimens that have migrated from deep water, 
have been females 0 ; but it is far from probable that 
it is to deposit their eggs that they make their way 
to the shallows; for the fry have never yet been found 
on any of the Atlantic coasts. 
The eye-witnesses of the movements of this fish 
declare that it swims on its side, like the Flounders. 
Their conduct under circumstances foreign to their na- 
ture and when probably suffering from some disease, 
cannot be unreservedly recognised as normal. But that 
this is possibly their custom, or at least a habit to 
which they often resort, is apparently shown by the 
difference between the two sides of the body that oc- 
curs in certain individuals, which in a certain degree 
reminds us of the want of symmetry in the Flounders, 
and was first remarked by Nilsson. Lilljeborg was 
informed by the fishermen of Finmark, with regard to 
his specimen, that the right eye was brighter than the 
left. According to Lutken’s table of measurements the 
eyes were of different size in four of the ten specimens 
which he measured in this respect* * 7 . In one of the 
three specimens preserved in spirits in the Royal Mu- 
seum, as we have remarked above, both the jaw-bones 
on the right side are larger than those on the left; 
and though the other two specimens are symmetrical 
in this respect, the mouth, when protruded, is oblique. 
According to the observations hitherto recorded as to 
the arrangement of the jaw-teeth and the vomerine 
teeth, Ave must regard the cases as exceptional in which 
their number is the same on both sides. A certain 
want of symmetry must, therefore, be acknowledged", 
even if it be merely one of the numerous individual 
variations of this genus. 
The Dealfish belongs to the abyssal depths between 
Iceland and the north of Norway. It has oftenest been 
met with north of the polar circle, but also on several 
occasions off the south of Norway and on the Scotch 
coast. It has been observed even on the coast of Ire- 
land. In 1823 Marklin brought home from the north 
of NorAvay the first Scandinavian specimen on record 7 , 
its length being about 156 cm.; and in 1837 S. Loven 
caught t-Avo specimens in West Fjord, the one about 
11 dm. long and the other about 13 dm. Since this 
time the Dealfish has often been met Avith on the coast 
of Nonvay: betAveen 1875 and 1883, according to Col- 
lett, 10 instances of its capture Avere recorded. In 
the autumn of 1827 a specimen came ashore betAveen 
the Skaw and Fredrikshavn; on the 6th of May, 1879, 
another specimen was cast ashore to the south of the 
Ska,Av; and on the 8th of February, 1881, a third spe- 
cimen, 830 mm. in length, the smallest on record, Avas 
taken about 6 miles south of the Skaw, and forwarded 
to Copenhagen Museum, Avhere another specimen is also 
preserved Avhich Avas received in June, 1886, from 
Frederikshavn g . Several specimens have thus been taken 
in Denmark, but only tw r o in Sweden. The first Avas 
found on the 22nd of April, 1879, on the lee of Vinga, 
in the island-belt of Gothenburg, and Avas received by 
Mr. N. Molin on behalf of the Royal Museum; and 
the second, according to Lilljeborg, was taken in the 
a A kind of harpoon-dredge with which the fishermen draw up the seals which have sunk to the bottom after being shot. 
b It might otherwise be supposed that, when it is taken in the Herring-seines, it has followed the Herrings from deep water. 
c In the long ovaries of a female 246 cm. in length Collett estimates the number of the eggs at between 550,000 and 580,000. 
The testes, according to Lutken and Sparre-Schneidek, are long and fimbriated. 
d L. c., p. 204. 
* Cf. Kr0yer, 1. c., p. 599. 
/ Cf. Nilss., Prodr., 1. c. The specimen, which is still preserved in the Royal Museum, is damaged and dried. 
9 Petersen, Vid. Meddel. Naturh. For. Kbhvn 1884, p. 156. 
