of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 45 
latter, while abundant in the shallow water on the beaches and 
estuaries, are not confined to them like the flounders and plaice, and 
may be got in numbers beyond the range of the young plaice. The 
adult is also more widely distributed, and is found in deeper water and 
further from the shore than the plaice, but the numbers are much 
reduced in the deeper water on the north-eastern grounds, where the 
long rough dab, witch, and megrim exist in greatest profusion. On the 
inshore grounds examined, in moderate depths, the dab is at least three 
times more abundant than the plaice. In Aberdeen Bay a number of 
hauls yielded 39,685 dabs and 12,475 plaice, and when it is borne in 
mind that a considerable proportion of the smaller dabs escape from 
the meshes of the net—they can be seen swimming about the net when 
it is hauled—it is evident the proportion is even greater than repre- 
sented. In the Moray Firth the “Garland” caught altogether 
24,615 dabs and 8813 plaice; at the six inshore stations the proportion 
was 1:3 dabs to one plaice, and at the outer stations in deeper water 
the proportion was 24-2 dabs to one plaice. 
The hauls made in the “‘ Dog Hole,” off Aberdeen, in from fifty-five 
to seventy fathoms, yielded ten plaice and 383 dabs. On the north- 
eastern grounds the abundance of dabs is much less. In six hauls 
made in September, in sixty-five fathoms, sixty-five miles S.E. by E. of 
Sumburgh Head, the number taken was fifty-three ; some were procured 
in each haul—from three to seventeen. In October none were got in a 
haul in 81 fathoms 97 miles N.E. of Buchan Ness, nor in 63 fathoms, 
874 miles N.E. But, as was the case with the plaice, on the grounds 
about eighteen to twenty-two miles south-eastwards from Fair Isle, in 65 
fathoms, they were represented, 756 being taken in nineteen hauls, 
the plaice numbering 193. In the series of hauls made by the “ Cale- 
donia” in June, in from sixty-four to eighty-one fathoms, about eighty 
miles east from Buchan Ness, only two were caught, both taken in one 
drag in seventy-nine fathoms. In two hauls taken in May, about sixty 
miles 8.E. by EH. of Flugga, Shetlands, two were caught, both in seventy- 
eight fathoms. In a haul twenty-two miles east from Flugga, in eighty- 
five fathoms, none were got; but in four hauls in sixty-five fathoms, 
about fifty miles from the Shetlands—a ground which yielded no plaice 
—no less than 1188 were taken, one five-hours’ haul producing 529 
specimens. On the Fisher Bank the dabs were less numerous than the 
plaice, the nine hauls yielding only twenty-six. 
The common dab may spawn far from shore and in deep water, for on 
19th May most of those caught in the hauls in sixty-five fathoms, fifty 
miles from land, were found to be nearly quite ripe, and some were 
spawning. ‘Ten females and five males which had passed through the 
meshes of the otter-traw]l and were caught in the small-meshed net were 
subsequently examined and measured. They were all approaching ripe- 
ness, the females ranging in size from 137 to 174 mm. (53-63 inches) 
and the males from 99 to 137 mm. (33-53 inches). The temperature 
of the bottom-water was 42°°5 F., and of the surface 46°°6 F. 
While that is so, however, comparatively few young dabs were taken 
in the small-meshed net in the deeper water. On the inshore grounds 
they were taken in great profusion, as small as from 32 or 34 mm. 
upwards in May, and under 40 mm. in September and October ;. but 
offshore the smallest individuals were much larger. For example, in 
the haul above referred to the smallest was 99 mm.; and in the 
September hauls, south-east of Sumburgh Head, only six common dabs 
were found in the small-meshed net, and they measured from 120 to 
150 mm., while there was a profusion of small long rough dabs from 
28 mm. and upwards. In the haul on 3lst August in the same place 
