19 



from 16 to 62 cm., and thus included juvenile and adult examples. 

 A few small whiting and haddocks were captured at the southern 

 stations, and near the rocks at the north end of Alnmouth Bay a 

 cod was included in one of the hauls. See Table I. 



This presentation of the results for 1920 goes to show that 

 the bays along the coast of Northumberland continue to receive 

 important contributions of food fish, that in the case of most of 

 the species the territorial waters are a nursery for the young 

 during the early period of growth, that this year, as in past years, 

 the young and the adults were distributed in the bays and along 

 the coast generally in a manner which is maintained from season 

 to season with remarkable constancy. But this year the plaice 

 emanating from the spawning of 1916 and 1917 were either poorly 

 represented or very late in appearance. The condition this year 

 with reference to plaice is shown graphically in figure 1. The two 

 upper curves indicate the catches at Skate Roads, and for com- 

 parison a similar catch made in 1906 is added. The small size 

 of the young fish and the almost complete absence of the plaice, 

 with a mean length of about 20 cm., are at Once apparent. It 

 will be observed also that the plaice above 24 cm. are approxi- 

 mately normal. 



Food. — A table, Table III., is subjoined to indicate the food 

 found in the stomachs of a number of the fish. Other examples 

 were examined and gave similar results. The food mostly in 

 evidence was sand eel. Portunus Jiolsatus appeared to be common, 

 but was not employed to the extent found in former years. 

 Mollusca aj>parently were very scarce. But what impressed us 

 most was the large number of fish with empty stomachs, and 

 the stomachs of several were found to contain sand with a very 

 few amphipods. Species endowed with the power of movement 

 as fish and Crustacea were present, but demersal life generally 

 appeared to be scarce in the inshore waters. 



The fish examined on the three first dates were obtained 

 for the most part in Alnmouth Bay, and those of September 2nd 

 from Skate Roads. In comparison with our past experiences 

 the food which is practically absent is molluscan food, so commonly 

 found in previous years. 



We have found in pre-war experiments that in general the 

 number of fish with nothing in their stomaoks increased in pro- 



