mixed
dinners. They eat small fish, sand-worms, shell-fish, Shrimps and young
Crabs. The Plaice has strong, blunt teeth in its throat, and is well
able to grind up the shells of Cockles and other molluscs, swallowing
the juicy contents.

Now we have seen that the Plaice is first a floating egg, and then a
tiny transparent "round" fish. It sinks to the sea bed, lies on one
side, and becomes a flat fish like its parents.

These little baby flat fish, not much larger than your thumb-nail, crowd
in the shallow, sandy parts of the sea near the coast. There they often
end their lives in the shrimp-trawl, as we have already noticed.

After leaving this "infants' school" the Plaice, and other small flat
fish, go to deeper water. There they feed and grow fat. Our fishermen
know where to find them. Indeed, these special fishing grounds are so
well known that flat fish are scarcer than they used to be. Some kinds
are much too dear ever to be seen on the poor man's table.

There is a special net for catching flat fish, called a _trawl_. This is
a large net, dragged over the bed of the sea by ropes, or steel wire,
attached to the sailing vessel or steam trawler. The net is kept open
under water by means of beams or boards.

When the flat fish are disturbed, they rise a foot or two from the sea
floor, and are then swept into the gaping mouth of the deadly trawl.
Once in, there is no escape. There they remain, pressed together, until
the net is hauled up and emptied.

EXERCISES

1. Give the names of five kinds of flat fish. 2. How does the Plaice
escape its enemies in the sea? 3. What is the food of the Plaice? 4. How
are flat fish usually caught for the market?

LESSON III

SEALS

There are many different kinds of Seal; the family is a large one, but
all have one thing in common--the fish-like body, with toes joined
together by a web. Anyone who has seen the diving power of a Seal, and
its wonderful way in the water, will agree that the "flippers" of the
Seal are as useful as the fins of the fish.

In fact, the flipper beats the fin, for the Seal earns his dinner by
chasing and catching fish. He slips through the water with perfect ease,
and seizes the darting fish in their own home. The Seal is nearly always
hungry, but so wonderfully quick that his hunting is made easy for him.

It is quite another matter on land, where his best pace is a waddle and
a shuffle; but his life is in the wide sea, where he can feed