50 Part ITL.—Twenty-first Annual Report 
specimens. ‘There were also taken in these hauls two grey skates, two 
starry rays, and seven anglers, as well as four argentines, two Norway 
pouts, two bibs, a herring, and a mackerel. The two latter may have 
been taken when the net was being shot or hauled, but I have previously 
found herrings in the stomachs of anglers caught in from 62-65 fathoms 
about sixty-five miles S.E. by E. of Sumburgh Head.* 
The vessel left the fishing ground for port on the morning of 5th 
June, and steamed seventy-four miles W.S.W. 
The temperature records are as follows :— 
Date. | Depth. Approximate Position. Air. | Surface.) Bottom. 
1902. Fms. 
: {Fisher Bank, 170 miles E. by 8S. from L : ; 
31 May 34 1 Giedigncss ie ; ‘ ; 50°5 | 482 43:2 
{yan 34 Fisher Bank, 160 miles E. by 8. ayia 52:3 48-9 438 
Girdleness : : 
Dues 34 Ie are ame E by ui eu 49:6 | 48-4 43:2 
—— ———$ ——.,s $< —__— 
3 June 79 80-90 miles KE. from Buchan Ness ; 50°9 | 46 42°9 
Ae ey 76 80 55 3 wh 51:0 | 46 42:8 
Ay ey 71 70 1D * 56) 49°3 | 46:3 43°2 
or 
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4. The Moray Firth and Aberdeen Bay in October. 
In October another series of trawling experiments was conducted in 
Aberdeen Bay and the Moray Firth, the trawler used being the “ Star 
of the Sea,” part of the hauls being recorded by Dr. H. C. Williamson. 
The expedition had more than usual interest from the circumstance 
that the vessel was equipped with a full-sized beam-trawl (50 ft. 6 in.) 
on one side and an otter-trawl on the other, the intention being 
to make a series of experiments on the same grounds by using the 
nets alternately with the object of determining the comparative 
efficiency of each kind of gear. As a practical appliance the beam-trawl 
is now quite obsolete on steam-trawlers ; but for the purpose of bringing 
certain statistics of previous years, when it was exclusively employed, 
into relation with the statistics obtained after the otter-net was intro- 
duced—a matter of much importance—it is necessary to have a series 
of comparative hauls from the same grounds at the same time. Unfor- 
tunately in this case the beam-trawl was lost in the second trial. It is 
possible the beam itself, which was one discarded when the new net 
came into vogue, was not as strong as if it had been new; but the ditfi- 
culty of adapting the gear for otter-trawling to the beam-trawl may have 
had something to do with the mishap. 
The first haul made was with the beam-trawl in Aberdeen Bay on 
2nd October, off the “‘ Black Dog.” The net was shot in twenty fathoms 
and towed into shallow water, even into four fathoms, and after fishing 
in a depth from that named upwards it was lifted in eighteen fathoms. 
The haul lasted for five hours and twenty minutes, and the marketable 
catch was a poor one, consisting of one cod, three baskets of small 
haddocks, a basket of dabs, and a little over half a basket of plaice, The 
* Nineteenth Ann. Rep., Part ITI., p. 288. 
