NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 175 
1893. December (less 8 days) . . 2730 boxes. 
1894, January : ; : aeis096. ta, 
February : ; : s B260%= as, 
March (less 6 days) : 1) 2oGorhs, 
April (less 4 days) . ‘ a OOS ae, 
Examination of the returns given in the two previous numbers of 
this Journal (1893, p. 87, and 1894, p. 128) shows that whatever 
decrease took place in the summer as compared with the winter 
months of 1893 is much more striking in regard to the late than to 
the early months of that year. I drew attention (Journal, 1893, loc. 
cit.) to the large catches that were made on certain grounds in the 
winter of 1892-3, and expected that a similar condition would 
obtain during the next winter. ‘There has been, however, no con- 
eregation of small codling on those or any other grounds at all 
comparable to that of the previous winter. It is true that the 
aggregate number landed is considerably in excess of last year’s 
supply, but the fish have been brought in in small quantities. Con- 
siderable catches first became apparent in November, 1892, and 
continued to appear until March, 1893. The principal grounds, it 
will be remembered, were the Yorkshire Hole, and, later on, Flam- 
borough Head. Now a considerable number of boats were working 
the Hole after the gale of November, 1898, as a fair supply of soles 
had appeared there ; but there was no quantity of codling. In fact, 
the first record I have of any considerable catches of codling is in 
February. Seventy boxes is the largest “ voyage” (as against 122 
last year), and 16 boxes is quite exceptional. ‘‘ Voyages ”’ of from 
60 to 23 boxes are recorded between the 2nd and 5th of March, and 
thereafter no catches of any magnitude were observed. In all cases 
the best catches were made during the past winter off Flamborough 
Head, none occurring at the Yorkshire Hole or any of the other 
grounds mentioned. ‘The absence of these shoals of codling is 
evidently not due to scarcity, it is simply a failure to congregate as 
they did in the winter of 1892-8, and it seems quite possible that 
the gale of November may have had something to do with it. The 
fish did congregate, as in the former winter, later in the season off 
the Head, though in less numbers, and, as our experience is limited 
to two years, it is not possible to say whether the earlier congrega- 
tion is a normal feature or the reverse. Answers to inquiries I have 
made have been too vague to be altogether reliable. 
Complaints by deep-sea liners were very general in February of 
the present year as to the scarcity of cod on the off-shore grounds. 
The cause, they supposed, was the prevalence of westerly winds, 
which had apparently the effect of setting the fish into the shore, the 
best catches being made near the coast. The fish, however, seem to 
