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IT. is one of the largest hauls made on the ground. 
TV. is one of the smallest. It will be seen later, however, 
that the hauls made on the ground dealt with in II. differ 
considerably from those made near the Deposit Buoy. 
The actual data considered here are given on Tables I. 
and II. Of the various species of edible fish enumerated 
above only 4 are dealt with—the sole, plaice, dab, and 
whiting. Consequently the totals under the heading 
“Total numbers of fish” are not the sums of the numbers 
representing the catches of the four fishes mentioned. 
Those sums are less than the totals by the numbers of fish 
of various kinds which are not tabulated. For each of 
the years 1895-99 the tables give (1) the number of hauls 
made during each month, (2) the total number of fish 
caught in all the hauls and the average number of fish 
caught per haul, (3) the total number of quarts of shrimps 
caught in all the hauls and the average catch per haul, 
(4) the total number of each of the four kinds of fishes 
caught in all the hauls and the average numbers caught 
per haul. 
Table T. deals with the observations made on a portion 
only of the whole Mersey shrimping ground. Most of the 
hauls have been made within two miles of the Deposit 
Buoy, that is on the shallow water immediately behind 
Burbo Bank. A few were made in a small portion of the 
Rock Channel (see Chart, p. 46). 
Table II. gives the hauls made in the deeper water of 
the Channels—part of Rock Channel, Horse Channel, 
Queen’s and Crosby Channels. The division of the whole 
ground into these two sub-divisions is not quite natural 
since all the Rock Channel ought, strictly speaking, to 
have been dealt with in Table If. But it was found 
convenient for various reasons to include the eastern 
portion of Rock Channel in Table | 
