of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 51 
informed by the trawlers that they get numbers of megrims beyond the 
100-fathom line. 
No very small megrims were procured in the fine-meshed net. The 
smallest in a haul in eighty-five fathoms in May was 114 mm. (44 
inches), the others, thirty-three in number, ranging up to 206 mm. (82 
inches). Others were taken in October off Fair Isle which measured 
145, 154 mm., &e. Holt has described young megrims nearly trans- 
formed, from 19 mm., and others «t various sizes. They were got in 
deep water (80 fathouts) off the Skelligs in August, and others, from 
three to a little over five inches, in about thirty fathoms in Ballin- 
skelligs Bay. 
The megrim, it may be said, was got in all the hauls in the deep 
water off the Shetlands, and the numbers in different hauls did not 
exhibit so great fluctuations as with the witch. It seems to be more 
regularly distributed. 
Scaup-FisH (Platophrys laterna). 
No specimens of this species were obtained on the East Coast either 
in the otter trawl-net, small-meshed net, or shrimp-net. Thirteen 
specimens were got in the Clyde in October, Novemker, and December. 
They measured from 103 mm. to 123 mm.; five were females, seven 
were males, and the sex of the other was not determined. 
Tursor AND Brit (Bothus maximus, Bothus rhombus). 
Not very many turbot were obtained in the hauls on board trawlers ; 
but a considerable number of brill were caught both in Aberdeen Bay 
and especially in the Moray Firth. The total number of brill procured 
during the investigations on board trawlers was 513 and the aggregate 
of turbot was 95, the brill thus being about 5-4 times more numerous. 
The figures show approximately the relative abundance of these two 
forms on the inshore grounds worked over—that is between about five 
and twenty fathoms, but mostly between six and seven and fifteen or 
sixteen fathoms. Had the investigations been carried on more exten- 
sively in water somewhat deeper, the proportion of turbot would have 
been slightly raised, because there is evidence that the turbot passes 
out further from shore than the brill does. The “ Garland, it may be 
said, during the trawling investigations in the Moray Firth between 
1886 and 1900, during which 308 hauls were made, caught sixteen 
turbot and forty-eight brill, the proportion being here as 1 to 3. 
Putting other reasons aside, the proportion at the inner stations, in the 
bays and territorial waters, was one turbot to 3°8 brill, and in the outer 
stations one turbot to 1:7 brill. The number of turbot and brill 
obtained at any time by the “ Garland” was small, but it is of interest 
to note that the proportion between the two species in the Firth of 
Forth and St. Andrews Bay differs from that for the Moray Firth, the 
turbot in both the former localities exceeding the brill in numbers in 
the ratio of about 1 to 0°6. 
As a rule only one or a few of either, more particularly turbot, were 
taken in a haul, but sometimes the number was much larger, as many 
brill, for example, as seventeen, eighteen, twenty-two, and twenty-three 
being taken in a single haul, while the maximum number of turbot was 
eleven—in between six and seven fathoms in Aberdeen Bay in 
November. In some cases, particularly in the Moray Firth—and these 
chiefly at Burghead Bay—very considerable numbers were taken in 
winter when herrings and sprats, or both, were on the ground, the 
