23 
7 to 9 fathoms, the duration and length of the drags were 
identical, and all three were made dragging with the 
stream. Nevertheless, the number of plaice taken varied 
from 51 to 438, the dabs from 10 to 68, and the ray from 
26 to 40. The fifth haul was made dragging in towards 
shallow water. The fourth and sixth hauls were shorter 
than the others, being of one and three-quarters and two 
miles length respectively. They differed, however, to an 
extent which is not accounted for by their difference in 
length, as the fourth yielded only 64 plaice, while 197 
were obtained in the sixth. The sixth haul, too, was 
made in the dark when, according to general experience, 
plaice are more difficult to catch in the trawl net. 
There is a general similarity between the results of 
the first three hauls obtained on this occasion and those 
obtained on October 21st, 1902 (see last year’s Report, p. 
85). The positions, states of the tide and lengths of drag 
are very approximately the same in each series. Both 
the first hauls, dragging north from Drummore yielded 
poor catches (14 and 68 plaice, respectively), the second 
hauls gave much better results (438 and 157 plaice), while 
the third were again poor (17 and 51). 
The results obtained on the present occasion confirm 
then those obtained in 1902, that is, that a trifling 
difference in position of the ground dragged over may 
correspond with very remarkable differences in the volume 
of the catches. This, indeed, is well known to fishermen, 
but it is a factor which has not been sufficiently recog- 
nised in statistical trawling operations, where it has been 
generally assumed that the distribution of fish on a large 
area is fairly constant. 
Sizes of the plaice obtained. 
The main object of the trawling operations was to 
obtain mature plaice, and in each haul all the fish of over 
