COMM< )N FLOUNDER. 
403 
tilly considered superior to the Dab. In winter especial- 
ly, the flesh is flabby, and contracts a muddy flavour, 
if the fish lives on a bottom of this nature. The Floun- 
der seems also to acquire a better flavour in fresh or 
brackish water than where the water is really salt". The 
Flounders of the Loire and Seine ;ire highly esteemed, 
according to Blanciiere. “Fresh water,” he says 6 , “has 
the effect of ridding the Flounder of that oozy smell 
that it has in the sea.” In the Baltic too? where the 
percentage of salt in the water is comparatively low, 
the Flounder enjoys a good reputation. “It is one of 
the most delicate fishes of the island-belt of Morko,” 
says Ekstrom, “especially when the summer is some- 
what advanced. At this season it is very fat and dainty 
— hence the proverb: Nar skogen dr gron, dr flundran 
skon (when green is the wood, the Flounder is good). 
Much depends, however, on the method of dressing it. 
Where Flounders are taken in large quantities they are 
usually salted or dried. In the island-belt of Morko 
there is a local method of preparing them in the following 
manner. “The fish are gutted, lightly salted, and after 
they have lain a day in the salt, hung up to dry. They 
are then kept for future emergencies, and when re- 
quired for use, are baked on straw in an oven. Pre- 
pared in this way they are delicious, provided that they 
are not so old or badly preserved that the flesh is rank.” 
Smoked Flounders are also a, favourite dish in many 
places, especially in Denmark and the north of Ger- 
many. The utility of the Flounder, however, does not 
save it from being despised where it is taken in too 
great abundance. Kroyer tells us that on the west 
coast of Zealand, at the beginning of May, he once 
witnessed the taking-up of a bottom-net which was 
found to be almost full of Flounders. As many as the 
large fishing-boat could hold — about half the catch — 
were taken on board, and the rest were released from 
the net. When the boat reached shore, nine men took one 
basketful of Flounders each, while the rest were left to 
rot in the boat and on the beach. According to Thomp- 
son considerable quantities of this fish were brought to 
Belfast in his time * 1 ', but their value was so low that 
one Plaice was worth as much as a hundred Flounders. 
According to Pallas his Pleuronectes stellatus was thrown 
away on the shore, and left to lie there in large heaps. 
In Alaska, on the other hand, according to Bean' 6 , it 
is of great economical importance; and in San Fran- 
cisco, according to Jordan 6 , it is much esteemed, though 
large specimens (between 8 and 20 lbs. in weight) are 
sold cheap and not considered good eating. 
The Flounder bears many names. As it is the 
most common of our Flatfishes, it is known in most 
parts of Sweden by the general name of flundra (Flat- 
fish). In the island-belt of Tjorn it is called Skrubba, 
Skrubbskddda, Buskeskadda (because it is often taken 
in ryssjor = traps) and Busko. According to Lind- 
strom the fishermen of Gothland “distinguish between 
two colour-varieties, Sandflundre, more whitish gray 
on the eye side and an inhabitant of sandy spots, and 
BnUerflundre, which is blackish gray and lives on a 
stony and dark-coloured bottom. ’ According to Gott- 
sche the Danish fishermen distinguish between Mudder - 
skrubbe (Mud-flounder), generally dextral and with a 
great part of the surface of the body destitute of spi- 
nous scales, and Sandskrubhe , generally sinistra! and 
with the eye side of the body almost entirely covered 
with spinous scales. 
The Flounder is taken chiefly in nets ( skaddegarn ), 
and sometimes together with other fishes in the seine 
or in fixed engines, such as traps and bottom-nets; but 
it also readily takes a hook baited with worms, and is 
thus often taken on long-lines set for Eels. 
(Ekstrom, Smitt.) 
The Plaice and the Flounder have proved to be 
extremely variable species, and to be fairly closely 
approximated to each other by their varieties. The 
variety of the former which Gottsche called Platessa 
Pseudoflesus — with ciliated scales, most distinct in a 
row along the bases of the dorsal and anal fins and on 
the sides of the lateral line — and the variety of the 
Flounder which Sandeberg called Pleuronectes Bogda- 
a Lindstrow says, however, of the Flounders in the swamps of Gothland, that their flesh is “of inferior flavour and muddy. 
1 Diet. Gen. cl. Pitches, p. 319. 
c Nat. Hist. Del. (1856) vol. IV, p. 194. 
a Cat. Collect. Fish., Gt. Intern. Fish. Exhib. Lond. 1883, U. S. Amer. Cat. F, pp. 5 and 20. 
e Br. Goode, Fish., Fish. Indnstr. U. 6'., sect. I, p. 184. 
