51 



degree associated with an increase in length due to the summer 

 feeding, but it is plainly correlated with a succession of migrants 

 according to size. The conclusion is therefore that with increas- 

 ing strength and size the outward migration is more and more 

 offshore. It follows from such a conclusion that the tendency 

 in the summer is to concentration inshore and in the winter to 

 segregation offshore. The evidence furthermore of the details 

 of the annual inshore incidence in the respective bays points to 

 a southward tendency of the migrants when they reach coastal 

 waters, and a northward tendency when they are leaving. 



Angler. — The following table shows the occurrence of this 

 species in the shallow waters of Northumberland since 1899. 



TABLE XVIII— -ANGLER. 



09 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 13 20 Mean. 



It is generally distributed along the coast, and was most 

 successful in 1906 and again in 1920. It is remarkably inconstant 

 in its history in Blyth Bay, but in both of the years of plenty 

 Blyth Bay participated in the wave of immigration. This species 

 is distinctly a summer visitor, appearing in May and persisting 

 to October or November. A reference to Table I. will show that 

 all sizes are caught from about 15 cm. (6 inches) to 50 or even 60 

 cm. (20 to 24 inches). 



The interesting feature of the species is that the egg masses 

 are pelagic, and are carried, it is believed, down the coast from 

 some distant spawning ground to the north. The masses have 

 been captured off the Northumberland coast in herring nets, and 

 the larvae have been captured in local plankton. 



It is very rarely then that the eggs are found and the larvae. 

 The young stages up to the period of those caught as in our trawling 

 experiments are still less seldom seen. These facts, together 

 with the evidence of the long pelagic drift of the larvae, point 

 to the spawning taking place for the most part in the Atlantic. 

 There can be little doubt from the work of Agassiz, the observa- 

 tions of Murray and Hjort off Newfoundland, and the occurrences 



