THE IMMATURE FISH QUESTION. 65 
Laboratory with the utmost minuteness and attention, and the results 
are shown in the following table. 
Lemon (Merry) Soles, December 31st, 1892, to March 11th, 1893. 
| 
MALEs. FEMALES. 
Length. No. examined. a ---. ——— 
Mature. | Immature. Mature. Immature. 
6 inches 0 0 0 0 0 
ess 10 7 0 3 0 
Sil 43; 14 10 (0) 4 0 
Ob Ps; 26 16 0 10 (0) 
107 5; 50 34 .) 16 0) 
RY 355 54 31 0 23 0 
Di 28 il?/ 0 ili 0 
1B} 26 12 0 14 0 
i a ae 9 2 0 7 0 
by 1 1 0 0 0 
(sy 2 0 0 2 0 
Gt, 0 0 0 0 0 
MS 5 (0) 0 (6) 0 0 
220 130 0 90 | (0) 
Under 11 inches—100. 
Over 11 inches—120. 
Not one specimen was immature. The period extended from 
just before the spawning period to the middle of that period, and 
every specimen was either ripe, or in such a condition that it would 
evidently have spawned this season if it had been left alive in the 
sea. All the males were actually ripe, yielding ripe milt when 
squeezed, or were nearly spent. The excess in the number of males 
over females is probably due to the fact that a disproportionate 
number of small fish were examined, and the males being smaller, 
a given number of small fish includes more males than females. It 
is probable enough that some of these fish were preparing to spawn 
for the first time in their lives, so that they were killed before they 
had actually been allowed to reproduce their kind; but it is not 
possible in such an examination of the fish as this with our present 
knowledge to ascertain whether a specimen is ripening for the first 
time or has spawned in previous seasons. But the evidence proves 
that in the period mentioned immature merry soles are not landed at 
Plymouth. At other times of the year immature specimens may be 
landed, but if so, I believe the proportion of such is small and un- 
important. At the Conference convened by the National Sea 
Fisheries Protection Association in 1892, the limiting size adopted 
NEW SERIES.—VOL., III, NO. I. 5 
