410 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
well within the mark, must suffice for our present purpose. A box 
of ‘‘ small”? contains at least 90 per cent. of less than 13 inches, and 
100 per cent. of sexually immature. 
I do not know what may be the standard of maturity in Iceland 
fish, so have restricted my calculations to those derived from the 
North Sea. The results are given in the following table. 
Table showing the numbers and proportion of plaice of different 
sizes landed at Grimsby by deep-sea trawlers in one year. 
| Sexually ° 
= —— 13 inches and Below 
} Mature. Immature. above. 13 inches. 
17 inches and above.| Below 17 inches. 
= No: % No. % No. % No. % 
| | 
i li. ili. iv. Vv. vi. vii. Vili. 
1893. April . .| 557,480 38 906,170 | 62 783,485 53 680,165 | 47 
May . | 547,540 19 | 2,218,160 | 81 902,380 32 | 1,863,370 | 68 
June . -| 411,600 | 21 | 1,508,650 | 79 662,425 36 | 1,257,825 | 64 
July . | 769,650 42 | 1,034,600 | 58 | 1,060,025 42 744,225 | 58 
August. .| 780,640 50 751,810 | 50 | 1,045,405 68 487,045 | 32 
September .| 787,500 50 536,500 | 50 | 1,032,400 78 291,600 | 22 
October .| 1,090,740 63 619,710 | 37 | 1,417,605 88 292,845 | 17 
November .| 728,210 58 516,090 | 42 956,670 76 287,630 | 24 
December . 313,810 66 156,240 | 34 405,645 86 64,405 | 14 
1894. January .| 297,780 | 62 179,870 38 388,085 81 89,565 | 19 
February .| 252,280 66 125,620 34 326,110 68 51,790 | 14 
March . | 477,830 44 583,820 56 651,635 61 409,515 | 39 
| Total for year .| 7,014,560 43 | 9,187,040 | 57 | 9,641,820 72 | 6,519,980 | 28 
I think it may be claimed that this table throws more light on 
the actual destruction of under-sized fish than any evidence that 
has yet been brought forward on the subject. Of course the 
numbers of fish given are not exact, but I emphatically assert that 
the method of computation, so far from exaggerating the propor- 
tion of small fish, tends rather to under-estimate it, yet we find 
that in a whole year’s trawling, on all North Sea grounds, 57 per 
cent., or more than half, of the fish had never had a chance of 
reproducing their species, and so contributing to the up-keep of 
the supply. 
I do not know that there is any actual necessity to say anything 
more as to the destruction of immature plaice, since if the above 
table does not prove to the satisfaction of any reasoning being that 
it is serious, nothing will do so. I will draw attention, however, 
to the difference in proportions which manifests itself in different 
months of the year,—especially, for a reason which will hereafter 
