6 Fishery Board for Scotland. 
The area over which investigations have been conducted extends 
from the Firth of Forth to the vicinity of the 100-fathom line north 
of Shetland. It also includes the Minch. The positions at which 
tow-net collections were made within the first quarter of the year are 
shown in a general way on the accompanying chart. It must be 
definitely stated, however, that while in each of the past ten years 
records were obtained in the months of January, February, and 
March, it was not always possible to visit the different localities with 
the same frequency. In all, 381 stations were visited within the 
period named, and 1387 separate observations were made. The 
total number of “Ammodytes” larvee captured exceeds 175,000. 
Although the first hatching out of the sand-eels in the northern 
area of the North Sea is much later than in the south, it is 
reasonable to suppose that their first appearance may vary 
considerably with the localities within such an extended area. ‘This 
time element is a dominant factor in the various spawning areas, 
for it determines not only the first occurrence but also the frequency 
of the larve in the plankton on a given date. 
No larval sand-eels were found anywhere by the ‘‘ Goldseeker ”’ 
in the month of January. . 
Observations made at stations in the neighbourhood of the East 
Coast of Scotland are highly interesting in that they show in some 
cases a few larve captured even in February in the Firth of Forth 
and as far as 30 miles east of May Island. In no other localities 
were sand-eel larvee found as early as the month of February. So 
far as the observations go, the following are the earliest dates of the 
appearance of the larvee of the sand-eel in Scottish waters :— 
; No. of Average 
ee alae Individuals. Tene 
1909, Feb. 12. | Stn. 44 (Lat. 56° 20’ N., 8 6 mm. 
Long. 1° 49' W.). 
1909, Feb, 12. | Stn. 43 (Lat, 56° 24’ N., 2 6 mm. 
Long. 1° 21’ W.). 
1910, Feb. 23. | Stn. 44 (Lat. 56° 20’ N., 52 6°5-7°5 mm. 
Long. 1° 49’ W.). 
1912, Feb. 28. West of May Island. 4 6 mm. 
1912, Feb. 29. | Fife Coast (Firth of Forth). + Newly 
hatched. 
In March the larval forms are found distributed throughout all 
the areas under review of less than 50 fathoms in depth, and the 
records conclusively prove that here the lesser sand-eel finds 
conditions suitable for its spawning. As the bulk of the material 
collected in the first quarter of the year belongs to the month of 
March, comparison of the frequency of the occurrence of the larve 
for the different localities is therefore the more simple. The 
localities at which they occur in greatest numbers provide a 
convenient starting point for a general consideration of their 
distribution. An examination of the records made by the 
‘* Goldseeker ”’ shows that this locality lies on the north-west border 
