OF THE GRIMSBY TRAWL FISHERY. 403 
the biological point of view, but I prefer to use the trade standard, 
since the ‘‘ practical”? man is thereby debarred from raising the 
howl with which he usually greets any attempt at what he chooses 
to suppose to be a “ scientific?’ method. The actual proportions of 
sexually mature and immature fish are deducible from averages based 
on the contents of boxes which are here excluded from the “ small.’” 
Even among the ‘‘ small” the fishermen sometimes find it neces- 
sary or advisable to introduce distinctions. Usually all fish from 
about 8 to 15 inches are packed together, but sometimes there are 
so many exceedingly small specimens that they are divided into two 
lots, of which the lesser series of boxes will contain fish not 
exceeding about 12 inches, and mostly much smaller. 
The Hastern grounds, in fact, differ somewhat from each other in 
the size of fish caught. Thus the “ Skilling” (Terschelling) 
ground off the Texel, nominally a sole ground, yields plaice of 
which the smallest are usually about eight inches long, so that all 
are marketable. The Borkum and Skimliko (Schiermonikoog) 
grounds, where the boats go closer in, produce quantities of smaller 
fish, down to a size of about four inches ; although none of less 
than six, and few of less than eight, are thought worth bringing 
home. Very small fish are also caught northwards as far as the 
Horn Reef, but north of that the fish are about the same as at 
Skilling. This much the grounds have in common, that, except 
recourse is had to the few rough patches already referred to, hardly 
any fish are caught which exceed the market standard of “ small,” 
and only the most infinitesimal proportion of really mature fish are 
taken. 
When these grounds were first worked, and for many years after- 
wards, it seems to be an undoubted fact that they abounded with 
large fish. Some say that there were no small ones then, but the 
general and much more probable report is that the little ones were 
always there as well, but were simply shovelled overboard (just as 
the very small ones are now), and so never made their appearance 
in this country. It was only when the large fish failed that the 
small ones began to be heard of. On the grounds “below” (north 
of) the Horn Reef it is said that originally there were only large 
fish, and it seems to be held that the fish there now are larger than 
the rest. Of this I have not been able to convince myself, either 
by personal inspection or by observing the fish landed from there, 
but certainly there are no very minute fish on the trawling grounds 
in that region. 
It is certainly a fact that large plaice are to be caught north of 
the Reef, but this is in the autumn, and on grounds which lie 
further out than those frequented by the small. The latter are 
