12 Fishery Board for Scotland. 
average duration (for 1912) of a voyage to the West Coast grounds 
is about 8 days in mid-winter, and falls gradually to 63 days in 
May or June; in like manner, a voyage to the Northern grounds 
takes on an average 7 days in winter and 6 days in July, but here 
the curve is less regular, and there is little difference in the average 
length of voyage from December to May. In the case of the Iceland 
and Faeroe voyages, the difference is very striking; for the average 
falls from about 15 days in December or January to a minimum of 
about 11 days in August or September. In this case, however, I 
have not distinguished between the Iceland and the Faeroe voyages, 
and much of the apparent difference may be due to the varying pro- 
portions of these. The Board’s more detailed statistics show that 
the average length of a voyage to Iceland is 13.1 days, and of a 
voyage to Faeroe 10.5 days. > 
In the case of the short trips to the Hast Coast grounds, which take 
about two and a half days, the maximum length of voyage is not in 
winter-time, but in early summer, about May and June. And here 
the greater length of voyage at this season cannot be due to the. 
impediment of weather, but is probably due to a comparative 
scarcity of fish at this season, and to the slightly greater length of 
time spent in securing a catch. 
The accompanying little chart shows, approximately, the time 
spent upon a voyage by the Aberdeen trawlers. 
B 
ae) 
Fie. 2. Chart showing average number of days spent upon voyage by 
Aberdeen trawlers, 1912. 
[t is plain that in all such comparisons as these, while much may 
be learned from the statistics of a single-year, yet it is on the 
averages derived from many years that the more fundamental con- 
clusions must be based. 
