214 



he destroyed in this way, hut the variation in the salinity 

 of those waters has not heen thoroughly investigated. 



Wherever spawning grounds may be located in the 

 Irish Sea, it is hardly likely that a longer period than 

 40-45 days can elapse before the larva finds itself in suitable 

 conditions on shallow sandy shores. 



The young Plaice now enters on its life in the 

 " nursery " ground. Practically the whole of the Lanca- 

 shire and Cheshire coast consists of ground of this charac- 

 ter — flat, sandy shores with shallow water overlying. 

 There ^I'e, however, several localities to which in par- 

 ticular the term is applied ; there is the whole of the 

 shallow water round the mouth of the Mersey, the whole 

 estuary of the Ribble ; the ground out from Blackpool 

 known as the Blackpool closed ground, the whole of 

 Morecambe Bay and the estuary of the Duddon at the 

 boundary of Lancashire and Cumberland. On all these 

 grounds vast quantities of young and immature Plaice up 

 to fish of 2-3 years old are found. Very young Plaice and 

 other Pleuronectids appear on these shores during June 

 every year. They have as a rule completed their meta- 

 morphosis, though a few may generally be got with the 

 eyes in the course of rotation. They are generally about 

 J inch and less in length, but have assumed the perfect 

 form of the adult (fig. 37). They nisij be found in great 

 numbers in the shallow sandy pools left by the receding 

 tide, where very many are stranded and perish. By the 

 autumn these little fish have grown to about 2-3 inches^ 

 in length. They are then present in great numbers on the 

 banks or shallower waters of the nursery ground. In 

 winter they disappear to a great extent from these banks, 

 or at least are not taken in the shrimp trawl, and it is 

 probable that they either bury themselves in the sand 

 when the colder weather approaches (this is a common 



