NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 195 
Therefore when, through the courtesy of Mr. G. H. Mudd, I had 
been put into communication with the consigners, | was greatly 
relieved to find that the fish were actually caught in the Baltic, and 
not in the North Sea at all. 
Since it appeared to be within the bounds of possibility that 
the very unusual weather of last summer might have had some effect 
in accelerating the maturation of the sexual organs in young fish, I 
had in the meantime examined a number of small plaice which were 
being brought into the market from the usual sources (including a 
large number landed by a German steam-trawler from the Horn 
Reef), but found the conditions to be precisely similar to those which 
I had noted and recorded in previous years. 
The Hamburg merchant from whom I derived my information as 
to the origin of the small spawning fish also tells me that they 
never grow to a large size and are sometimes called ‘ Golden 
butts.’ Now “ Goldbutt’’ is the vernacular name which Gottsche 
found to be applied to what he considered the most typical examples 
of Pl. platessa, Linn. He describes two varieties, Pl. borealis and 
Pl. pseudoflesus.* 
The points in which the latter variety differs from the type (of 
Gottsche) are indicated as the presence of ciliated scales on the ocular 
side (on the sides of the head and of the abdomen, along the lateral 
line, and along the bases of the dorsal and anal fins), and the small 
number of the dorsal and anal rays. This variety, in which, as is 
implied by the description given by Smitt,+ the blind side may also be 
to some extent ciliated, is stated by that writer to be identical with 
Nilsson’s var. baltica, and to be commonest in the Sound and the 
Baltic. I do not find that Gottsche expressly mentions that it has 
been taken in the North Sea, since its occurrence in Hamburg 
market is no proof of this. Kroyer, however, has recorded it from 
Hastholm.{ Gottsche noted that ‘ gold butt” first appeared in the 
Hamburg market in winter, and only rarely. At Copenhagen they 
were in the market the whole of summer. Most were taken in 
Oresund. Pl. pseudoflesus are simply stated to have been taken in 
company with ‘ gold butt.”’ 
I had considered it very probable that Pl. psendoflesus occurred 
amongst the small plaice which are constantly landed at Grimsby 
during the spring and summer from the opposite coast of the North 
Sea, but had never succeeded in finding any, nor, among the first 
lot which I obtained from the Baltic, could I find any trace of cilia- 
tion. As I have already remarked, those which I examined were 
* Wiegm. Arch., 1835, p. 143. 
+ Hist. Skand. Fish., ed. 2, 1893, i, p. 393. 
{ Teste Smitt, loc. cit. 
