1] 
were made from the New Brighton sailing boat. A few 
were made by the “John Fell,” and are included amongst 
the others. The conditions under which the hauls were 
made were not strictly uniform. As a very general rule 
a shrimp trawl of 21 feet beam and 33 feet length of net, 
with a mesh measuring half an inch from knot to knot, 
was employed. Very occasionally a slightly longer beam 
(24 feet) has been used. The greater number of the drags 
made were two miles in length and one hour in duration, 
and these conditions were adhered to as closely as cireum- 
stances permitted. Occasionally, however, the length and 
duration of the drags were greater, more often less, than 
the values stated, and from this cause individual hauls 
are, strictly speaking, not comparable with each other. 
In the treatment of the data it has, therefore, been 
thought advisable to make the average hauls per month 
the values compared, and as the averages of a number of 
hauls have generally been used in whatever comparisons 
we make, to that extent the error due to fishing under 
shghtly inconstant conditions has, we consider, been 
eliminated. 
The recorded results of these hauls include (1) the total 
numbers of edible fish caught, (2) the numbers of quarts* 
of shrimps taken, (3) the numbers of the various species 
of food fishes with (generally) their average sizes, (4) state 
of weather, sea, wind, &c., (5) physical observations. The 
commoner fishes taken are:—The sole (Salea vulgaris), 
the plaice (Plewronectes platessa), the dab (Pleuronectes 
limanda), the haddock (Gadus eglefinus), the whiting 
* We employ the quart of shrimps (the economic unit) as the measure 
of the catch. A quart contains a variable number of shrimps, 200 to 400, 
the variation being due to the varying sizes of the animals. The market 
value varies from 6d. to 8d., that is the price paid by the consumer ; the 
fisherman himself receives only about 3d. per quart on the average if he 
sells his catch to the fishmongers. But a considerable proportion of the 
shrimps caught (about one-third) are retailed by the fishermen themselves, 
