14 NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 



of vessels were fisliiug on the Dogger, where, so far as I could learn, 

 fish were very scarce in the winter months. Here, as well as on 

 neighbouring grounds, small plaice were in excess of the large, and 

 formed a few separate boxes ; the condition of these small plaice is 

 discussed below. Haddock and plaice formed the main part of the 

 catch. It has been explained in j\Ir. Holt's papers that haddock are 

 packed for sale on the pontoon in three sizes — the largest, called 

 gibbers, from the mode in which they are gutted ; the medium, called 

 kit, because conveyed in kits to the curing houses ; and the small. 

 From the Dogger Bank, a week's voyage produced about 30 to 40 

 boxes of the gibbers, about 60 upwards of kit, and 30 to 50 small. 

 The largest catch I saw from a steam trawler was landed on April 25th, 

 from one week's fishing, and consisted of 6 boxes plaice, 150 boxes 

 kit, 80 boxes gibbers, 3i boxes small haddock, 1 score of turbot, and 

 h score cod. This catch realised £130, which is considerably more 

 than the average value of a week's catch. 



I have already mentioned three voyages of small plaice, landed 

 March 20th, 21st, and 25th. The small number lauded altogether 

 in March and April offers a remarkable contrast to the condition of 

 things in the same months in 1894. On March 2Gth there was landed 

 a voyage of 260 boxes, the result of three weeks' fishing south of the 

 Horn lleef. On the 27th another voyage, this time of a fortnight's 

 fishins, of 200 boxes was landed. It should be mentioned here that 

 more than one vessel had tried the Sylt grounds for small plaice before 

 March 20th, and had failed to catch any. The explanation offered 

 to me by Mr. Alward, and also by several of the skippers of steam 

 trawlers, was that the weather had been too cold ; that the small plaice 

 bury themselves in the sand in cold weather, and remain motionless, 

 taking no food — hibernate, in fact — so that the trawl passes over them 

 without disturbing them. It is certain that the small plaice in the 

 tanks at the Cleethorpes Aquarium did behave in this manner, and 

 emerged in a lively and hungry condition in the fine warm weather, 

 at the very time that the small plaice were landed at the docks. 

 On the 20th a sailing trawler landed 78 boxes. Voyages of small were 

 landed on April 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 9th, but from this date until the 26th 

 no catches were landed from the Eastern Grounds. It is true that cold 

 easterly winds set in during the greater part of this time, and the weather 

 was dull, and this change in the weather may have been the principal 

 cause of the disappearance of the fish from the market. On the 26th, 

 30 boxes were landed by a German steam trawler; and on the 29t]i, 

 170 boxes from another German boat. 



It seems to be the fact tliat on April 24th, large numbers of small 

 plaice, from the Eastern Grounds, were landed by steam cutters at 



