THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SEA. 



13 



are based on the " monthly averages per shot " published in the annual 

 reports of the trawling experiments, and are the mean of those averages 

 for the entire decade, except that fractions of the resultant figures are 

 here omitted, and that the averages for the first two years in the 

 case of dabs have been independently worked out, since for those 

 years the official averages for dabs and long rough dabs were not 

 distinguished. 



Table I., sJwwing Average Nuniber of Fish per Haul of the Tratvl for 

 each month of the year in the eloscd ivaters of St. Andrevjs Bay and 

 the Firth of Forth respectively (from the ten years' experiments of the 

 " Garland "). 



It will be seen from these figures that the average catch regularly 

 increases or diminishes in numbers with the sequence of the months. 

 The only serious discrepancy is in the St. Andrews averages for July, 

 the low value of which is entirely due to the insufficient number of 

 observations made in this month (only three surveys in the ten years), 

 and to the accident that the surveys which actually were made fell 

 in relatively unproductive years. Had surveys been also made in 

 this month in the year 1887, and in either 1890 or 1895 (as was 



* The figures for July, 1886, have been altogether omitted for St. Andrews Bay, owing 

 to the incomplete examinations made of the stations in that month. 



t September and October, Firth of Forth.— In 1886 five of the seven Forth stations were 

 surveyed in September, the remaining two stations in October. The data have therefore 

 been merged together in my table under September, and altogether excluded from October. 

 In the oflicial report on the first year's work, the September and October averages are 

 based on the partial data of the stations examined in each month respectively ; but as the 

 figures for the most productive station (No. II.) are thereby omitted from the October data 

 this separation can .scarcely be approved. 



