40 Fishery Board for Scotland. 



Near Cruden, on 3rd February 1908, only one egg was got from hauls 

 made in the difierent water layers, and it had already passed into the 

 "y " stage. 



Observations made in March at Rattray Head and Buchan Ness 

 with a fom'-inch fine silk net gave positive results. 



These observations are in full agreement with the results obtained 

 by previous workers. For example, the conditions obtaining in the 

 neighbom'hood of St. Andrews Bay have been summarised by Professor 

 M'Intosh (S.F.B.R. xii.). "Few or no spawning plaice (none within 

 our experience) are ever captured within the Bay (St. Andrews), though 

 eggs and young in various stages are not uncommon. It is stated 

 that adult ripe plaice were formerly procured by hook and line off the 

 rocky shore towards the mouth of the Bay, between Boarhills and Fife 

 Ness, on hard ground on which no trawl could work. The adult 

 spawning plaice in greater numbers occur in the ofi-shore waters, and, 

 so far as is known, there is no passage of these from the outer to the 

 inner area for the piu-pose of discharging their eggs — as was formerly 

 believed in regard to many fishes." 



Station 27 (57° 30' N. ; 1° 19' W.). 



This station is situated within the narrow finger-like valley made 

 by the fifty-fathom line off Buchan Ness. From om* knowledge of the 

 general distribution of plaice eggs one might conclude that they should 

 be rare or even absent in this neighbourhood. The records for this 

 narrow valley between the shallower banks of the East of Scotland are 

 very irregular, but never at any time were there large numbers of eggs 

 found. Neither on 2nd February 1906 nor on 24th February 1909 were 

 plaice eggs obtained. On 25th February 1907, 26 eggs were collected 

 in the surface net, and 18 of these were in the initial stages of develop- 

 ment. Fewer newly spawned eggs were procured in March, for, on the 

 26th of the month in the year 1908, only 28 eggs were got from the 

 different water layers, and only 2 of these were newly spawned. 

 Again, on 29th March 1910, 2 eggs in the " y " stage of development 

 were captm^ed in the same number of hauls. 



In February 1907 observations were made at Station 27 on the 

 25th, and two days later similar observations were taken at 1| miles 

 east of Cove and at Tod Head, W./N. 1| miles, with the following 

 results : — 



Developmental Stages. 



a (3 y 5 



Station 27 ... 32 4 6 5 



Cove . . . . 1 1 22 25 



Tod Head ... 12 4 4 



The eggs at Cove had thus been spawned for some considerable 

 time, and probably they had not their origin in that locality. Ob- 

 servations in localities to the north and south do not help in determining 

 from which direction they had been drifted. 



Stations off Cove and Montrose. 



On 23rd March 1909 two lines of stations at right angles to the coast 

 at Cove and Montrose were examined. Five stations, eight miles apart, 



