of til e Fishery Board for Scotland. 



29 



(seven aud three-quarter inches) to about 23-5 cm., or nine and a quarter 

 inches ; a few were a little larger. The selection of the various classes 

 by the men, being solely by the eye, is never perfect, one class always 

 overlapping another more or less. 



A number of other hauls were made on this ground with the same 

 general results, the marketable fishes consisting of plaice and scarcely any- 

 thing else, round-fishes, with the exception of gurnards, being almost 

 absent. During the time in the Dornoch Firth the weather was 

 very favourable for tisbing operations on the whole, though on the 10th 

 there was some wind from the east, which made the sea a little choppy, 

 causing the vessel to roll. 



In the ten recorded hauls in the somewhat deeper water, from eight to 

 thirteen fathoms and mostly from eight to eleven, the time of actual 

 fishing being thirty-eight hours and thirty-two minutes, the aggregate 

 number of fishes captured was 7613, of which 3565 were marketable and 

 4046 unmarketable. They consisted mostly of flat-fishes, and chiefly of 

 plaice, the former numbering 7316, and the round-fishes, nearly all 

 gurnards, only 279. The average per hour's fishing was 92'5 for the 

 marketable, and 105"0 for the unmarketable, the general average for both 

 combined being 197"5. Only five cod, two (unmarketable) coillings, thirty- 

 two haddocks, all marketable, were taken, and not a single whiting. The 

 plaice numbered 6680, of which 3450 were marketable and 3230 

 unmarketable, the respective averages per hour's fishing being 89 '5 and 

 83 8 for the marketable and unmarketable, and 173 -3 for both together. 



In the two first hauls in the somewhat shallower water above described 

 a greater number of fishes were captured in the six hours and forty-two 

 hours of fishing, viz. 9787, the average per hour being 1460'7 ; the 

 marketable numbered 2873, with an average of 428'7, and the unmarket- 

 able 6914, with an average of 1032-0. The number of plaice in these 

 two hauls was 9155, the average per hour being 1366-4 ; the marketable 

 amounted to 2736, with an average of 408-4, and the unmarketable to 

 6419, with an average of 958-0. These numbers are very rarely reached. 



The number of marketable and unmarketable fishes taken in the twelve 

 hauls was as follows: — 



It is of interest to contrast the proportions in which the plaice of 

 different sizes were caught in the two hauls in the shallower water and in 



