282 NOTES AND MEMOEANDA. 



of the County Council against the East and West India Dock 

 Company^ for depositing sludge dredged from the docks on ground 

 alleged to be good trawling ground for flat-fish and shrimps, con- 

 trary to the Bye-laws of the Committee. The defendants were 

 fined £10 and costs, and an application to the magistrates to state a 

 case on the question of jurisdiction was granted. — G. H, F. 



A TEAWL-NET which seoms likely to prove useful to yachts, and 

 to any vessels for which a beam-trawl is prohibited by its size and 

 weight, has been brought to my notice by the patentee, Mr. John 

 Thurlow, of 26, Cleves Road, Eastham. It consists essentially of 

 the ordinary otter-trawl with the addition of a third otter-board, set 

 so as to skid upwards and to keep the gape of the net open. It thus 

 disposes of one of the objections to the ordinary otter-trawl, that the 

 upper edge of the net being immediately over the foot-rope, fish can 

 escape upwards (cf. Holdsworth, Deep-sea Fishing and Fishing- 

 Boats, p. 372), a possibility here prevented by the third otter-board 

 coming as far forward as does a trawl-beam over the foot-rope. The 

 inventor will supply specimens and models of the net if desired. — 

 G. H. F. 



Gadus esmarkii (Nilss.).— I took a female, about three parts ripe, from 

 the stomach of a halibut, trawled on or about the 31st January on 

 the south-western flat, a ground which lies due west of the coast of 

 Northumberland, between long. 1° and 3°, but chiefly to the west- 

 ward of long. 2° 30', and thus within the British area as defined by 

 Canon Norman (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1889, p. 345). The 

 soundings are from 30 to 50 fathoms cable. Another halibut con- 

 tained, on the same occasion, the remains of two small gadi, which 

 were probably of the same species. The Norway pout has been 

 shown by Dr. Giinther (Deep-water Fishes, P. E. S. E., vol. xv, 

 No. 127, p. 212) to be common enough in certain localities on the 

 west coast of Scotland, and I have shown that it is by no means 

 rare on the west of Ireland {vide Scien. Proc, R. D. S., 1892, 

 pt. 4). Its range must now be extended to the east coast of 

 England.— E. W. L. H. 



Phycis blennioides (Br linn). — Two fork-beards were received during 

 March from the ground to the north-west of the Great Fisher Bank, 

 lat. 57° 40' N., long. 2° 20' E., 40 fathoms, and lat. 57° 45' N., 

 46 fathoms. The first was a female with ovaries but little advanced, 

 containing slightly opaque ova, the largest '15 mm. in diameter. 

 The other specimen had had its viscera removed by its captor, with 

 a view to its better preservation. The fork-beard seems to be 



