34324 REMARKS ON TRAWLING. 
line about 2 miles from shore (‘‘Scooniehill,” in a line with “ the 
steeples ”’), and about 4 fathoms in depth. Boat after boat trawled 
along that line, wind and weather permitting, for four months of 
the year, and sometimes longer, and to the closing day it maintained 
its position as the best area for plaice. The same observation has 
been made at Brixham, where trawling has been in operation about 
a hundred years. It is quite evident, therefore, that other fishes 
took the place of those captured, and that this continued month 
after month and year after year. ‘The whole question, therefore, in 
the larger areas outside the 3-mile limit is—Can the supphes from 
the neighbouring waters keep pace with the rate of capture now 
going on by both liners and trawlers? These supplies consist of 
the growth of the young from eggs on the area itself, and the 
immigration of eggs, young, and adults from other areas or the 
open water beyond. It is seen that, so far as human observation 
can go, the supplies of herrings are as plentiful as formerly, not- 
withstanding the absence of restriction and the great waste that 
annually takes place in this fishing. On the other hand, it is a matter 
of observation that the first hauls of the trawl on virgin ground are 
the most successful, and that by-and-by the catch diminishes, and 
the same occurs with the liners on their new “ banks” or “ reefs.” 
Yet it cannot be said in either case that the fishes have been extir- 
pated, but they probably have become more wary as well as 
diminished in numbers, and, moreover, they may have changed 
their ground, for fishes are constantly roaming. It has to be 
remembered that the food-fishes are not altogether confined to the 
shallower water in which they are usually followed, but they lke- 
wise extend into the deeper water beyond. Such deeper water and 
unfrequented regions, therefore, form reserves, in which the species 
is reproduced, the eggs, young, or adults passing into those areas 
in which the food-fishes have been more or less thinned. 
The area last mentioned, viz. that off the Forth, is perhaps one 
of the most important in Scotland, injregard to the number and 
variety of its fishing-grounds. For the present purpose the area 
may be defined as that bounded by a line drawn eastward from 
Arbroath on the north, and a similar line from St. Abb’s Head on 
the south. Between these poimts the Tay and the Forth pour con- 
siderable bodies of fresh water into the sea, while the Eden de- 
bouches into St. Andrew’s Bay between them. The amount of 
microscopic food—both plant and animal—as well as of the smaller 
invertebrates which are carried to sea in this area, is very consider- 
able, and in all probability is closely related with the richness of 
invertebrate life both in the waters and on the bottom. The enor- 
mous numbers of pelagic mussels swept from the Tay and the Eden 
