396 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
Danish Plaice fishery within the Skaw, during the 
year 1885, was valued at 836,881 crowns (£46,493)“. 
According to v. Yiilen h about 2 million Plaice, of a 
value of 133,000 crowns (£7,390), were taken in 1879 
off the coast of Bohuslan. At the Skaw large quanti- 
ties of Plaice are taken and conveyed thence to Gothen- 
burg, where they are, therefore, known as skavskciddor 
or skabosJcaddor. According to A. W. Malm the Plaice 
is “common along the coast of Bohuslan, where it 
generally keeps to a bottom of firm sand, at a depth 
of 10 — 14 fthms., and prefers spots close in shore or 
at the edge of the gutters between islands and islets, 
where there is usually a strong current in some di- 
rection or other.” The larger specimens, which are 
found even in the Sound, are known by the Danish 
fishermen as prmsteflyndre (Priest-flounders, i. e. fit for 
a priest’s table) or hansinger. Many of them are uoav 
sent, together with Plaice of ordinary size, by rail to 
Stockholm, where they are known in the market as 
Tiungsflundror (King’s Flounders). Faber regarded these 
King’s Flounders as a distinct species ( Pleuronectes 
borealis ), while Gottsciie took them to be a special 
variety of the Plaice. The King's Flounder is said to 
be distinguished by the light ring round the red spots, 
most distinct on the dorsal and anal fins, the usually 
hidden anal spine, and a number of characters which 
we have noticed above as retrogressions to the juvenile 
type. But the irregularity in the appearance of these 
characters, the transitions to the common Plaice, and 
finally the fact that no young King’s Flounders have 
ever been found, induced both Nilsson and Ivroyer 
to declare that the King’s Flounder is nothing more 
than an old, overgrown stage of this species. 
In the North Sea the Plaice is — or at least has 
been — still more common and still more remunerative 
to the fisherman than in the Cattegat and Skager Rack. 
An important fishery for this species is also pursued 
in the English Channel and the Irish Sea. After the 
great strides that the trawl-fishery has made in later 
years, complaints may be heard in most places that 
the Plaice, like other Flatfishes, has become consider- 
ably rarer; but as recently as 1888 the statistical re- 
ports show" that during this year Plaice were imported 
into England and Wales to a value of £614,585. On 
the coast of Iceland the Plaice is also found and seems 
to be by no means rare; but it is unknown in Green- 
land and on the east coast of North America. 
For the purposes of the table the Plaice is regarded 
as one of the best of the Flatfishes. It comes next to the 
Sole and the Turbot, or, in the opinion of many, a little 
lower, next to the Halibut; and its abundance places it 
within the reach even of the poor. In London especially 
it is consumed in large quantities' 2 ; but in other large 
towns as well, Copenhagen and Hamburg for example, 
it is one of the most important fishes in the market. 
Its flesh is white and firm, arid is best when fried. 
During the spawning-season • — winter and spring * 6 — 
its flesh is rather flabby; but, as great numbers of 
Plaice spawn at different times, specimens fit for table 
may be procured even during this period. 
Like the rest of the Flatfishes the Plaice generally 
leads a sluggish life, hidden in the sand, where it 
speedily covers itself with a fetv strokes of its fins, so 
completely that only the head or even only the snout 
and the mobile eyes are in sight. HoAvever, it is not 
at all destitute of the poAver of motion, and at need 
is one of the SAviftest of fishes. “In October, 1869,” 
says Buckland', “I Avitnessed the drawing of a seine 
net opposite our oyster fishery at Reculvers, near Herne 
Bay, Kent, Avhen a considerable number of plaice were 
caught; but just as the net arrived at the edge of the 
Avaves it “rolled,” and nearly all the plaice escaped. 
A fisherman cried, “Look out, they’ll sand!” a capital 
expression, for I found that the fish sunk into the sand 
Avith such rapidity that the operation must be seen to 
be believed. The plaice lifts up its head and the upper 
third of its body and then brings it doAvn on the sand 
three or four times Avith sharp, quick raps; a small 
cavity is thus made in the soft, Avet sand, Avhich at 
once fills Avith Avater; the fish then Avorks its fins on 
“ Ibid., p. 82. 
6 Not. iib. die Schwed. Fischereien, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Swedish Department, Fisheries Exhibition Berlin, 1880. 
c Fish. Trades Gazette , vol. VI, No. 295 (12th Jan., 1889), p. 8. The catch of Plaice in Scotland and Ireland is not included 
here. It is summed up in the tables with the catch of other fishes. 
d Cf. Holdsworth, Deep Sea Fishing, p. 17. 
e Among some Plaice from Gothenburg that were purchased here in Stockholm at the beginning of May, 1889, some had not yet 
begun to spawn and were of excellent flavour, while others were new-run and hardly fit to eat. 
f Nat. Hist. Brit. Fishes, p. 180. 
