NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 383 



inches,* whilst in one of the trips, when 105 fish were caught, no 

 less than 68 were under 13 inches. 



Daring June the aggregate of thirty-one trips of steam and sailing 

 vessels from the Dutch, German, and Danish coasts was 4623 turbot, 

 of which 786 were mature and 3837 immature. The proportion of 

 immature is thus 82 per cent. The highest proportion reached in 

 individual cargoes is 100 per cent., and the lowest 28 per cent., but 

 only in two instances does it fall below 50 per cent. 



During July, eighteen trips comprised 2435 fish, the proportion 

 of immature being 69 per cent., a diminution since the previous 

 month, which is probably explicable by the fact that the body of the 

 plaice on which the fishing chiefly depends had shifted from the 

 inshore part of the grounds, which seems most frequented by young 

 turbot. 



It has been asserted that many immature brill are destroyed on 

 the same grounds, but of this I can find no evidence. In fact, the 

 brill seems rather scarce on the eastern side of the North Sea, and 

 nearly all which I have seen brought in from thence have been 

 sexually mature. Fishermen and fishmongers are apt to class 

 turbot and brill alike in discriminating between large and small, 

 which may account for the assertion I have alluded to. Brill of less 

 than 15 inches reach the Grimsby mai'ket chiefly from about Mable- 

 thorpe, on the Lincolnshire coast, where they seem rather plentiful. 



The common soles which are taken on the eastern grounds by 

 our trawlers seem nowadays to consist chiefly of mature fish. One 

 hears a great deal of the destruction of small soles in former years, 

 but it appears that the boats at that time went much closer to the 

 shore than they dare to go at present. 



As may be supposed, young lemon soles and witches or pole dabs 

 are not found on these grounds. The flounders there met with are 

 mostly of fine size. A young halibut is sometimes taken, and 

 common dabs of all sizes abound. 



In the North Sea halibut are not usually caught in large numbers 

 in the trawl, but in the spring I have occasionally seen large 

 catches brought in. These consisted almost entirely of small fish, 

 and, according to my information, were chiefly derived from the 

 South-west Flat of the Great Fisher Bank. The trawlers that have 

 visited the Iceland grounds this summer generally brought in only 

 a few small halibuts, but the number was sometimes considerable 

 when they had been fishing a ground known as Madam Piper^s 

 Bay, near Langenness. 



* lu dividing mature and immature turbot I made use of this limit of size, believing 



then that it represented the limit of sexual maturity in the female, which I have since 

 found to be somewhat higher. 



NEW SERIES. VOL. II, NO. IV. 29 



