TRAWLING EXPERIMENTS. 
By A. MEEK. 

The experiments were made to test a small otter trawl, and 
the results are not therefore comparable with those of previous 
experiments. 
The mesh of the net is larger than that of our beam trawl, 
and the larger mesh is effective in preventing the catch of the 
smaller flat fish. It was interesting to see, however, that the 
numbers captured at the stations examined bore the same pro- 
portion as our experiments in former years have shown to be 
so characteristic of the coastal waters. The catches are, for this 
reason added to our records. The tables show that if the younger 
fish are poorly represented, the older fish were similar in numbers 
to those of previous years. 
The experimental hauls were made in September last year. 
At Skate Roads, as we have had occasion to note before, there was 
a quantity of weed, and the plaice especially indicated its presence 
by their dark colour. In former years also we have recorded 
the presence in the bays at this season of September of large 
numbers of edible crabs in the soft condition. Such were present, 
and were particularly abundant at Skate Roads and at Alnmouth. 
The numbers captured in an hour were 25 at Skate Roads and 
30 at Alnmouth. Although it is not an unusual occurrence, it 
is worth stating to indicate to what a large extent crabs cast in 
the autumn, and the dispersion which takes place after the event. 
