NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. £77 
damage to the nets. It may here be remarked that the proper 
charting of the inshore waters for piscatorial purposes isa duty that 
might be very profitably undertaken by the fishery authority under 
whose jurisdiction they fall, since the Admiralty authorities take 
no account of such physical characters of the bottom as do not 
interfere with navigation, and the information available from existing 
charts is, in consequence, lamentably meagre from the point of view 
of the fisherman or of those concerned in the study of fishery 
problems. 
Speaking generally, our hauls were made along the edge of the 
land rock, or following the trend of the coast a little further out ; but 
it is also possible, by avoiding certain outlying rocks, to trawl right 
out to a ground beyond the three miles limit. This ground extends 
practically from Whitby to Flamborough Head, but we are not at 
present concerned in discussing its condition. All the grounds I 
have mentioned are collectively termed the Scarborough “ in ” 
grounds. The ‘ off” grounds bearing the same name he about thirty 
miles seawards. 
The grounds close inshore may for the present purpose be classed 
together, since we found no great variation in their condition or 
products, but one of them calls for a little separate notice. This is 
the Cloughton Wyke Ground, consisting of the narrow strip of sand 
already alluded to. It has long been famous as a sole ground at 
the right season, and used to be worked as follows :—At the com- 
mencement of the ebb the boat would be taken as far in as the 
water allowed, the trawl shot and hauled out of the Wyke, thence 
about two miles offshore and north to another little inlet called 
Hayburn Wyke. On the flood the modus operandi would be reversed, 
but by far the most soles would always be taken on the ebb. Accord- 
ing to my information the soles were chiefly taken near the head of 
Cloughton Wyke itself, and Mr. Woodall tells me that they were 
found to feed on a species of Nereis which occurs there in great 
numbers. I am also informed by Mr. G. L. Alward, on what he 
considers to be reliable authority, that soles have been dug out of 
the sand at low water in the same wyke, a statement which the 
burrowing habits of soles in captivity go far to support. 
My own experience of Cloughton Wyke is confined to a single 
haul, made during the daytime in very clear water. We did not 
catch any soles, and I am assured that it is only possible to catch 
soles there in daylight when the water has been rendered turbid by 
heavy weather from the eastward. Moreover the season for soles 
had hardly begun. The ground was clean except for alittle Flustra 
foliacea and a few hydroids. The fish caught differed in no respect 
from those taken on the other parts of the inshore grounds, The 
