NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 131 
were also explored in 1892; and during the present year, in spite of 
a prohibition on the part of the Danish Government against fishing 
in territorial water, the practice has been continued by British boats. 
Several of these have had reason to regret it, having encountered 
rocks ; whilst I am informed that one Danish steam trawler has 
become a total wreck. ‘There can be no doubt, however, that there 
will be found ample room for the development of a large trawling 
industry without encroaching on the territorial waters ; and we may 
here recall that when the Faroe banks were first found suitable for 
line-fishing, boats used to go there in twos and threes, it being 
supposed that the productive area was so limited that a single boat 
might miss it, whereas it has since proved to extend for hundreds 
of miles. 
The plaice are very large as compared with North Sea fish, 
especially those from the Ingol’s Hoof and West Horn grounds. 
The smallest fish I have ever seen brought in measured 12 inches; 
only an insignificunt quantity were of less than 17 inches, whilst 
specimens of about 27 inches were a large item in the catch. The 
largest I measured was 30 inches long, but I am quite sure that I 
have seen specimens which were several inches longer. The 
maximum size recorded for North Sea fish is 28 inches. IT have 
never seen any longer than 27 inches, and comparatively few above 
24 inches. 
The pigmentation is characteristic, and should serve to avoid the 
confusion that might otherwise arise in the minds of such naturalists 
as are apt to record anything they see on their fishmonger’s stall as 
British. The ground colour, due to the darkness of the soil all 
along the coast, is a dark greyish brown, often very dark ; the spots 
are usually much fewer than in North Sea fish, and often of very 
irregular outline; the central region is rust-colour, or a dark brown 
flecked with the former tint, and is surrounded by a broad and very 
distinct margin of a lighter shade, either white, cream-colour, or a 
brown much paler than the ground colour. In large examples this 
margin may measure from + to 4 an inch in width. In a few fish, 
however, in all cases small specimens, I have seen the spots as 
numerous, and of as bright an orange as one finds in Dogger fish, 
and I have reason to believe that the colour of the spots is not, 
as might be expected, dependent on that of the ground. This 
description applies, of course, only to dead fish, which would not 
show any mottlings that may exist in the ground colour during life. 
In 1892 the fish were found in abundance at Ingol’s Hoof from 
the beginning of June until the end of July, when a trawler who 
went there could find none. They seem, however, to have shortly 
returned, The other grounds were not worked in the beginning of 
