RECENT REPORTS OF FISHERY AUTHORITIES. 211 



greater with the larger hooks, still this advantage was not sufficient 

 to compensate for the great general reduction in the number of fish 

 caught. Small hooks catch a large proportion of large fish, and large 

 hooks a considerable proportion of small. 



Of Prof. Mcintosh's additional contributions to the knowledge of 

 eggs and larvre, perhaps the most interesting is that concerning the 

 turbot. The material in this case was derived from the mature living 

 turbot, collected at the Dunbar Hatchery. In the summer of 1894, 

 these turbot, although gravid, did not spawn. On the 7th September 

 a specimen was examined, and in the centre of the enlarged ovary 

 was a large space filled with mucus and the remains of ripe, but dead, 

 ova. The fish were evidently, it is stated, getting rid of the eggs of 

 the season which had been retained in the ovary, and died there. This 

 is exactly what I described years ago, in this Journal, concerning 

 the sole in the Plymouth tanks. Prof. Mcintosh thinks that the egg- 

 bound condition, i.e. the refusal to shed the spawn in a normal manner, 

 is voluntary, and that it would soon disappear when the fish grew 

 accustomed to confinement. It is quite probable that the turbot would 

 shed its spawn in confinement after a time, but in the Plymouth 

 Aquarium the soles did not spawn till after five or six years, and 

 the turbot has not spawned there yet. At Dunbar, the soles and turbot 

 collected in 1894 were unfortunately lost from overcrowding, in con- 

 sequence of the limited capacity of the ponds ; and in 1895 the fertilised 

 eggs from other turbot which were obtained, were artificially stripped 

 from the fish. 



Mr. Arthur T. Masterman has two papers in the Scottish Peport, 

 one on the rate of growth of plaice, and one on hermaphroditism iu 

 the cod. The former paper consists largely of comments on Petersen's 

 work and my own; those on the former being complimentary, those 

 on the latter very much the reverse. As he bases his comments largely 

 on theoretical assumptions, I do not think it necessary specially to defend 

 my own work. Mr. Masterman's own contribution to the evidence 

 concerning the growth of plaice consists in the application of Petersen's 

 method of graphic curves to the measurements of plaice taken on the 

 east coast of Scotland by the Garland. The curves obtained, especially 

 those of plaice taken in St. Andrew's Bay in 1891, do give successive 

 maxima in the number of individuals at certain sizes, but that these 

 maxima correspond to the broods of successive years seems to me 

 more than doubtful. Thus, according to Masterman, the mid-size of 

 the year old fish in July is 6 in., of the two year old 8Hn., while 

 in November the mid-size of the year old fish is 9i in., and even iu 

 October is 9 in. That is to say, the majority of the year old fish 

 grow 3 in. in length in the three mouths, July to October, but only 



