94 



Fart III,— Twentieth Annual Report 



in from five to fourteen fathoms, and 34 fishes were caught, 26 being 

 marketable, including two haddocks and twenty plaice. The vessel 

 then steamed to the Dornoch Firth, where large catches of plaice were 

 obtained in the previous autumn and winter, as many sometimes as over 

 two thousand in a four hours' drag. Two hauls were taken in from five 

 to twelve and a half fathoms, but very few fish were caught, the net 

 containing chiefly mud and weeds. The first yielded 153 fishes, of which 

 91 were marketable, comprising 62 haddocks and 26 plaice, and the 

 second 245 fishes, of which 89 were mai'ketable, including 18 haddocks 

 and 61 plaice. It is noteworthy that dabs as well as plaice were 

 extremely scarce on this ground, where they were previously abundant, 

 the two hauls yielding only 29, of which one was marketable. 



Since fishing of this kind was unsatisfactory as well as unprofitable, 

 the vessel steamed northwards to the Caithness coast, where the net was 

 shot ofi" Dunbeath in twenty-five fathoms, and towed for three hours at 

 about that depth. On being hauled no fish were found in the net, and 

 as it had probably not been working properly another drag for an hour 

 was made in the same place, but in twenty-two fathoms, the small- 

 meshed net being put on outside the cod-end. On this occasion about a 

 quarter of a basket of fish were taken ; they numbered 23, of which 16 

 were marketable — namely, nine plaice, four lemon soles, and three 

 common dabs. No haddocks, codling, or whiting were caught. The 

 contents of the small-meshed net consisted of eight common dabs and 

 one lemon sole, and did not include a single round fish. The lemon 

 soles were spawning, one of the ripe males measuring only 131 mm, 

 (5g inches) ; the smallest female was 13|- inches long. While fish were 

 so scarce in this haul, the quantity of " jelly-fishes " (chiefly Cyanea) 

 contained in the net was very considerable, amounting to about twenty 

 basketf uls. They were present in abundance in the bays and inshore 

 waters thi'oughout the summer, and it was mainly to this circumstance 

 that th9 trawl-fishermen (who call them " slithers ") attributed the poor 

 catches of fish. 



Steaming further north, a series of hauls was made in Sinclair Bay, 

 between Noss Head and Duncansby Head, in from 5| to 17 fathoms, 

 and here better results were obtained. On 3rd and 4th June five hauls 

 were made, the actual trawling occupying thirteen hours and forty 

 minutes, and 2759 fishes were caught, of which 1439 were marketable 

 and 1320 unmarketable. They are as follows (I. = marketable and 

 II. = unmarketable) :— - 



One angler was also taken, but no skates or rays or whitings. A 

 large proportion of the gurnards were ripe or nearly ripe, and many 

 were spawning. Several were of large size, measuring up to 45 "5 cm. 

 (18 inches), and on this occasion the larger fishes were preserved for 

 market. The gurnards were feeding on young sand-eels, with which 

 their stomachs were crammed. 



The ground in Sinclair Bay was in parts strewn with boulders, and 

 the net caught on sevei^al occasions, and on the forenoon of the 4th 



