402 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
With regard to the plaice (putting aside the estuary of the Humber, 
which is the seat of a small shrimping industry, and which annually 
contributes an insignificant number of small plaice to the market), it 
soon became evident that all the takes of plaice which included 
so many small fish that the latter could be packed in separate 
boxes, were made on the Hastern grounds—that is to say, on any 
part of the Continental coast from Terschelling on the south, to the 
Horn Reef on the north, and even further northwards along the 
Danish coast to Hantsholm (see chart). 
My inquiries were facilitated by the fact that vessels which fished 
these grounds seldom worked any others during the same voyage, 
so that there was but little admixture in the cargo of the products 
of different localities. The most usual admixture was in the case of 
boats which had been fishing off Borkum Island. On the ground 
nearest the shore of that island the plaice are all small, but on 
Borkum “ rough,”’ only a few miles off, there are plenty of fine fish. 
Such matters, however, could usually be ascertained in the course of 
the collection of the records. 
It was, of course, impossible to examine all boxes of fish which 
came to market, and to determine how many were mature or the 
reverse, so | was compelled to divide my returns into two headings,— 
(i) those boxes which contained large fish, and (ii) those which con- 
tained only small. 
The hmit of sexual maturity stands, as we have seen, at about 17 
inches for the North Sea, but this is not recognised in commercial 
circles as the natural limit between large and small fish, and I found. 
it convenient to make use of the ordinary market definitions of these 
two terms. <A box of “small”? plaice, in market parlance, is one 
which contains, except in very rare instances, no fish over 15 inches 
in length, and very few, often none, which exceed a length of 13 
inches.. A box of “large” may contain all sizes, as long as there 
are a few large or fair-sized ones on the top. There is an inter- 
mediate standard known as “ half-fish,”’ consisting chiefly of sexually 
immature fish ; but half-fish are not invariably packed separately, 
and it is hard to see what boundary of average size may separate a 
box of “half” from a box of “large.” I have only found it 
possible to deal with two sizes, viz. ‘‘ large’’ (including “ half ”’) and 
‘“smali”’ as above defined. 
Of course, in such a classification a great number of immature 
fish are left out of the category of ‘ small,” viz. a certain number 
nearly always present in boxes of “ large,’’ boxes which barely rise 
to the dignity of “ half,’? and boxes which, though almost filled with 
small fish, are decorated with a few largish ones on the top. 
It may be remarked that the classification is unsatisfactory from 
