AND NEIGHBOURING SEAS DURING 1897. 201 



they were floating eggs or larvae carried about by the sea. It is very important, 

 therefore, to know the direction of these currents, in order tliat we may be 

 able to tell ^vhere the eggs from the fish spawning upon any particular ground 

 will be carried. At present we do not know whether the eggs from the plaice 

 spawning on the Eddystone grounds are carried towards Plymouth and Whit- 

 sand Bay, or whether they are carried eastward towards some point on the 

 Devonshire coast, or westward to the coast of Cornwall. Upon questions of 

 this kind our experiments should throw light. 



" Investigations of a similar kind have been made in the Irish Sea by 

 Professor Herdman, and in the North Sea by the Scottish Fishery Board. In 

 the case of the experiments in the Irish Sea, about 35 per cent, of the 

 bottles put out were found and the post cards properly filled up and returned, 

 whilst in the case of the North Sea experiments from 20 to 30 per cent, 

 were recovered. The latter experiments showed that the inshore waters 

 of the Firth of Forth and St. Andrews Bay derive their main supplies of 

 young fish, not from the waters lying contiguous to them to the eastward, but 

 from areas further north, such as the spawning grounds off the Bell Rock and 

 those of the Forfarshire coast. It was also shown that a southerly current 

 runs doAvn the eastern side of Scotland and England to the coast of Norfolk, 

 where it turns to the eastward and crosses the North Sea. Of the bottles set 

 free off the east coast of Scotland many were picked up on the east coast of 

 England as far south as Norfolk, but none further south than this. Many 

 were, however, carried across the North Sea and found on the coasts of 

 Schleswig and Jutland. Tliis will explain the immense nurseries of young 

 fish which are found in the eastern portions of the North Sea — the so-called 

 'Eastern Grounds,' so well known from the large number of immature flat- 

 fish which are trawled there. E. J. Allen. 



"Marine Biological Association, Plymouth." 



It will be seen in the sequel that Mr. Allen's experiments to deter- 

 mine the currents in the neighbourhood of the Eddystone grounds 

 have provided data not only for the settlement of these local problems 

 of importance to the west-country fisheries, but for determining many 

 matters connected with the surface currents of all the three seas which 

 wash the shores of England. The majority of the bottles put overboard 

 near the Eddystone have been recovered on the south coast, along the 

 whole length of the English Channel; but a very large number have 

 made a safe passage through the Straits of Dover, stranding eventually 

 on the shores of Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway ; a 

 few have rounded the Land's End and travelled as far as Barnstaple 

 Bay ; and others put out in the Irish Sea and St. George's Channel 

 have stranded on the west coasts of England, Wales, and Scotland, 

 even so far to the northward as the Isle of Colonsay in the Firth of 

 Lome. 



