Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Listen to of Within the Deep by R. Cadwalader Smith.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Listen to
the story of the flatfish. You see fish of many
shapes and sizes in the fishmonger's shop. They can be
divided into two kinds, round fish and flatfish. Cod, herring,
(00:26):
mackerel and salmon are round fish. The flat fish are place, turbot, brill, halibut,
soul dab and flounder. Most people know the taste as
well as the look of a place, but few know
much about its life in the ocean. Indeed, there are
secrets in the life of this fish, and many other
(00:46):
fish too, which still puzzle us. Put a salmon and
a place side by side, and it is plain that
they live in very different ways. One is made to
dart like an arrow, the other to lie flat. One
is the shape of a torpedo, the other is flat
like a raft. The shape and color of the place
(01:07):
tell their own story of a life on the sandy,
pebbly bed of the sea. And look at the eyes.
Both are on the upper side of the head. What
could be better for a fish that lies flat on
the ocean floor. The place is the best known of
these flat fish, so we will try to find how
its life is spent in the deep sea. Have you
(01:30):
ever watched those little sailing vessels which go as shrimping.
They carry a large net, a shrimp trawl it is called,
which is drawn over the sandy home off the shrimp.
When the trawl is hauled up, it may contain not
only shrimps, but the other sea dwellers in sandy places.
Among these, sad to say, is often a mass of
(01:51):
baby place and other flat fish, tiny little fellows. They
are some hardly as large as a postage stamp. They
are thrown aside, being of no use to the fishermen.
Now these babies are quite flat, darkish on the upper side,
white on the other side, like the place you see
(02:12):
in the shop. They are not such new babies after all,
though such wee mites. It is more than six weeks
since they left the egg, and in that time they
have passed through wonderful changes. As you will see. Place
lay a great many eggs which float about in the sea.
Most are gobbled up by those sea creatures, and they
(02:33):
are many who love fish eggs for dinner. From each
remaining egg, a baby Place escapes. At first, it floats
upside down at the surface of the sea and eats
nothing at all. Then it rights itself and begins to
swallow the tiny creatures which swarm in sea water. Strange
to tell this baby place is not a bit like
(02:55):
its mother. It is not a flat fish now, but
a round fish. It has one eye on each side
of its head, and you would expect it to grow
up like any other round fish. For about a month,
this small, transparent youngster hardly alters. Then it grows deeper
in the body and begins to swim near the bottom
(03:16):
of the sea. At last it lies on one side,
and its life as a round fish is over. A
fish lying thus on its side would have one eye
buried in the sand, and quite useless, would it not.
But our young place is changing its appearance very quickly.
Its head is growing rather lopsided. The eye next the
(03:37):
sand is little by little brought round to the upper side,
until it looks up instead of down. Its mouth gets
a queer, one sided look. Owing to the twisting of
the bones in the head. Many people think that the
dark upper part of a flat fish is the back
and the white underpart is the stomach. We have seen,
(03:59):
how however, that this is not so. For flat fish
lie on one side for the rest of its life.
The place will remain flat, with two eyes looking up
and a twisted head, but its color altars. The side
on which it lies is white. The upper side becomes
brown and speckled, dotted over with red marks. This is
(04:22):
a good disguise. Its enemies cannot distinguish the place from
the pebbles and sand around it. They might swim over
it and yet not see the thin, flat, brownish body
press down on the bed of the sea. Also, these
flat fish have a wonderful way of changing color. Put
them on light sand and they become lightish. Put them
(04:44):
on dark sand and pebbles, and they soon match it
by becoming brown and mottled. This is a most useful
dodge where so many enemies abound, all swifter in the
water than the slow swimming flat fish. If you look
for flat fish in an aquarium, you will not easily
see them. Now and again, one will swim up with
(05:05):
a wavy motion of its body. On settling down, it
shuffles and flaps about, works itself into the sand, hiding
its edges well under, and then hey presto, it is gone.
If the flatfish are so hard to find in a tank,
you may be sure it would be impossible to find
them on the seabed. They are poor swimmers but perfect hiders.
(05:31):
As far as we can tell. They feed on other
living creatures. The ocean floor is a huge dining table
for them, where they find very mixed dinners. They eat
small fish, sand worms, shellfish, shrimps, and young crabs. The
place has strong, blunt teeth in its throat and is
well able to grind up the shells of cockles and
(05:52):
other mollusks, swallowing the juicy contents. Now we have seen
that the Place is first a flowating egg and then
a tiny, transparent round fish. It sinks to the seabed,
lies on one side, and becomes a flatfish like its parents.
These little baby flatfish, not much larger than your thumbnail,
(06:14):
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 Place and other small flatfish go to
deeper water. There they feed and grow fat. Our fishermen
know where to find them. Indeed, these special fishing grounds
(06:38):
are so well known that flatfish 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 flatfish called a trough. This
is a large net dragged over the bed of the
sea by ropes or still wire attached to the sailing
(06:59):
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 seafloor and are then swept into the gaping mouth
of the deadly trough. Once in, there is no escape There.
They remain pressed together until the net is hauled up
(07:22):
and emptied. Exercises One give the names of five kinds
of flatfish? Two? How does the place escape its enemies
in the sea? Three? What is the food of the place? Four?
How are flat fish usually caught? For the market? End
(07:46):
of less than two
Listen to of Within the Deep by R. Cadwalader Smith.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Listen to
the story of the flatfish. You see fish of many
shapes and sizes in the fishmonger's shop. They can be
divided into two kinds, round fish and flatfish. Cod, herring,
(00:26):
mackerel and salmon are round fish. The flat fish are place, turbot, brill, halibut,
soul dab and flounder. Most people know the taste as
well as the look of a place, but few know
much about its life in the ocean. Indeed, there are
secrets in the life of this fish, and many other
(00:46):
fish too, which still puzzle us. Put a salmon and
a place side by side, and it is plain that
they live in very different ways. One is made to
dart like an arrow, the other to lie flat. One
is the shape of a torpedo, the other is flat
like a raft. The shape and color of the place
(01:07):
tell their own story of a life on the sandy,
pebbly bed of the sea. And look at the eyes.
Both are on the upper side of the head. What
could be better for a fish that lies flat on
the ocean floor. The place is the best known of
these flat fish, so we will try to find how
its life is spent in the deep sea. Have you
(01:30):
ever watched those little sailing vessels which go as shrimping.
They carry a large net, a shrimp trawl it is called,
which is drawn over the sandy home off the shrimp.
When the trawl is hauled up, it may contain not
only shrimps, but the other sea dwellers in sandy places.
Among these, sad to say, is often a mass of
(01:51):
baby place and other flat fish, tiny little fellows. They
are some hardly as large as a postage stamp. They
are thrown aside, being of no use to the fishermen.
Now these babies are quite flat, darkish on the upper side,
white on the other side, like the place you see
(02:12):
in the shop. They are not such new babies after all,
though such wee mites. It is more than six weeks
since they left the egg, and in that time they
have passed through wonderful changes. As you will see. Place
lay a great many eggs which float about in the sea.
Most are gobbled up by those sea creatures, and they
(02:33):
are many who love fish eggs for dinner. From each
remaining egg, a baby Place escapes. At first, it floats
upside down at the surface of the sea and eats
nothing at all. Then it rights itself and begins to
swallow the tiny creatures which swarm in sea water. Strange
to tell this baby place is not a bit like
(02:55):
its mother. It is not a flat fish now, but
a round fish. It has one eye on each side
of its head, and you would expect it to grow
up like any other round fish. For about a month,
this small, transparent youngster hardly alters. Then it grows deeper
in the body and begins to swim near the bottom
(03:16):
of the sea. At last it lies on one side,
and its life as a round fish is over. A
fish lying thus on its side would have one eye
buried in the sand, and quite useless, would it not.
But our young place is changing its appearance very quickly.
Its head is growing rather lopsided. The eye next the
(03:37):
sand is little by little brought round to the upper side,
until it looks up instead of down. Its mouth gets
a queer, one sided look. Owing to the twisting of
the bones in the head. Many people think that the
dark upper part of a flat fish is the back
and the white underpart is the stomach. We have seen,
(03:59):
how however, that this is not so. For flat fish
lie on one side for the rest of its life.
The place will remain flat, with two eyes looking up
and a twisted head, but its color altars. The side
on which it lies is white. The upper side becomes
brown and speckled, dotted over with red marks. This is
(04:22):
a good disguise. Its enemies cannot distinguish the place from
the pebbles and sand around it. They might swim over
it and yet not see the thin, flat, brownish body
press down on the bed of the sea. Also, these
flat fish have a wonderful way of changing color. Put
them on light sand and they become lightish. Put them
(04:44):
on dark sand and pebbles, and they soon match it
by becoming brown and mottled. This is a most useful
dodge where so many enemies abound, all swifter in the
water than the slow swimming flat fish. If you look
for flat fish in an aquarium, you will not easily
see them. Now and again, one will swim up with
(05:05):
a wavy motion of its body. On settling down, it
shuffles and flaps about, works itself into the sand, hiding
its edges well under, and then hey presto, it is gone.
If the flatfish are so hard to find in a tank,
you may be sure it would be impossible to find
them on the seabed. They are poor swimmers but perfect hiders.
(05:31):
As far as we can tell. They feed on other
living creatures. The ocean floor is a huge dining table
for them, where they find very mixed dinners. They eat
small fish, sand worms, shellfish, shrimps, and young crabs. The
place has strong, blunt teeth in its throat and is
well able to grind up the shells of cockles and
(05:52):
other mollusks, swallowing the juicy contents. Now we have seen
that the Place is first a flowating egg and then
a tiny, transparent round fish. It sinks to the seabed,
lies on one side, and becomes a flatfish like its parents.
These little baby flatfish, not much larger than your thumbnail,
(06:14):
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 Place and other small flatfish go to
deeper water. There they feed and grow fat. Our fishermen
know where to find them. Indeed, these special fishing grounds
(06:38):
are so well known that flatfish 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 flatfish called a trough. This
is a large net dragged over the bed of the
sea by ropes or still wire attached to the sailing
(06:59):
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 seafloor and are then swept into the gaping mouth
of the deadly trough. Once in, there is no escape There.
They remain pressed together until the net is hauled up
(07:22):
and emptied. Exercises One give the names of five kinds
of flatfish? Two? How does the place escape its enemies
in the sea? Three? What is the food of the place? Four?
How are flat fish usually caught? For the market? End
(07:46):
of less than two
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