IN THE BAYS ON THE SOUTH-EAST COAST OF DEVON. 445 



The most remarkable fact which this table reveals is the large 

 uuiiiber of small plaice which are captured in the deep water, not 

 merely in one month or season, but throughout the year. The largest 

 number — that recorded in April — is 19,800, but those for the other 

 months vary between 4,000 and 10,000. On account of this uniform 

 distribution throughout the months, the numbers of small plaice are 

 sometimes greater and sometimes less than those for the large plaice. 

 They are less from February to July, and greater from August to 

 December. The proportions of small to large are stated in hundredths 

 in the third column. The fluctuation in these proportions — from 19 in 

 February to 2,319 in November — is simply another expression of the 

 varying supply of large fish. 



The number of small fish landed for the year is a little over 143,000. 

 The total number of plaice, large and small, is about 323,000, and 

 of these the small plaice amount to 44 per cent. The records for 

 the large smacks suggest that the small plaice may be relatively 

 more abundant some distance from land than inshore, as the smacks 

 always fish further out to sea than the Mumble Bees. Fifty-three 

 per cent, of all tlie plaice landed by these large boats consisted of 

 small fish.* 



When we pass later to a comparison of the offshore fishing-grounds 

 with Start Bay, it will be shown how important is the fact that the 

 small plaice under 11 inches are distributed over the offshore grounds. 

 We find similar phenomena in the North Sea off the Dutch coast to the 

 east of the Dogger Bankf and elsewhere,! so that to naturalists the 

 fact will come as no surprise. 



Though the plaice is of higher importance for the purposes of the 

 present paper, it is of less value to the Brixham Mumble Bees than 

 the soles or whiting. The whiting is undoubtedly the most abundant 



* It must be admitted that there is a possibility of error in these records for the large 

 smacks, owing to the fact that the plaice landed by them are mostly in small quantities 

 at a time and all sizes are mixed together. The percentage of small lish may therefore be 

 a little lower than that stated. 



[It must also be borne in mind that, while the number of Mumble Bees is practically 

 constant throughout the year, the smacks work in greater numbers in the autumn than in 

 the spring period ; i.e. their hauls are most numerous in the season when the small fish 

 predominate. I cannot on this account share my colleague's opinion that the figures sug- 

 gest a higher proportion of small fish to large on the grounds worked by tlie smacks than 

 on those worked by the Mumble Bees. On the contrary, the quarterly ratio of small fish 

 to large is seen in the table to be lower for the smacks than for the Mumble Bees in each 

 quarter except the third. In that quarter it is much less than the ratio yielded by the 

 catches of the Mumble Bees for the last month in the quarter, viz. October, and it was 

 during this month that the smacks appear to have increased in number. — W. G.] 



t See E. W. L. Holt, Journ. M. B. A., vol. iii. p. 405. 



+ Mr. J. T. Cunningham, Journ. M. B. A., vol. iv. p. 24, has already remarked on the 

 presence of small plaice over the area described in these pages, but records no actual 

 observations. (Mr. Garstang kindly pointed out this reference to me.) 



