41 



It is not proposed here to analyse and restate at length the 

 results obtained by other investigators, but those made with refer- 

 ence to the Forth school deserve some degree of attention. Fulton's 

 paper * deaHng with the markmg experiments made in St. Andrews 

 Bay and the Firth of Forth showed evidence of a more or less 

 northerly tendency which the later results of the " Goldseeker " 

 experiments, also described by Fulton,! served to neutraUse. But 

 if both be reconstructed with the above considerations in mind, the 

 apparent contradictions will be found to disappear to a large extent. 



But it is first necessary to state with regard to marking experi- 

 ments that all we know for certain in each case is that the fish was 

 marked on a given day in one place and was recai)tured at a given 

 date in another. We cannot assume therefrom that the movement 

 was merely from the one place to the other in the time indicated. If 

 the movement is such as to contradict the evidence of statistics 

 and trawling experiments then the presumption is that the marking 

 experiment is at fault or is susceptible of explanation. In the 

 fight of the information presented in the foregoing sections we 

 expect evidence from the marking experiments to show a practi- 

 cally complete migration of small plaice to and from the inshore 

 waters, and evidently in a northerly direction, and a later migration 

 of the larger immature ; but in the case of those of mature size when 

 they are not actually undertaking a spawning migration it is diffi- 

 cult to say yet when and how they migrate. With regard to these 

 latter and the larger immature we do gain some information from 

 marking experiments, but the smaU plaice have been only to a 

 sfight extent utihsed for such experimental work. It will be neces- 

 sary to mark these offshore at the beginning of the year to gain the 

 facts we desire with regard to the direction of the immigration into 

 the shore grounds. 



In the case of the " Garland " results, the plaice re-caught in 

 the St. Andrews region showed (1) no migration, (2) a migration 

 to the south of 3 and 22 miles, (3) a migration to the north (36 

 examples) of from 2 to 12 miles. The one which migrated 22 miles 

 south was fiberated in April and recaptured in August, thus during 

 its immigration. The examples which indicated a northerly 

 migration were really returning from the winter migration, having 



* 11th Ann. Rep. Fish. Bd. for Scot., 1893 

 t Fifth Rep. on Fish, and Hydrog. Investig., Fishery Bd. for Scot., 1013. 



