52 Part I1.—Twenty-first Annual Report 
turbot and brill being predaceous and living to a large extent on these 
clupeoids, as well as on the sand-eel. 
I give in the following Table the particulars for the two places ; 
in the Moray Firth the hauls at different localities are combined. 
ABERDEEN Bay. Moray FIRTH. 
Houle Ee eel ree [eeees Henle. as aa ae Bprats. 
January, 2 1 11 2 27 9 1 
February, . 1 ; , : : 18 3 19 83 12 
March, 3 19 1 29 8 22 
April, . 
May, . “ 5 : 3 6 . 18 17 25 4 
June, . St 1 28 § 2* 18 2 7 Bae 
July, . 4 7 9 7 99 1+ 14 1 1 11 29 
August, : 4 5 : 2 A 14 : 6 
September, . 5 5 1 10 2, 11 
October, s S 1 3 12 
November, . | 17 17 3 F 5 32 ( 106 17 
December, .| 17 1 1 10 Z 36 27 «| 233 =| 141 
* One sand-eel. + Three sand-eels. +t Sand-eels. 
The number of brill and turbot caught, mostly at Burghead Bay, in 
November, December, and January was considerable ; in the two former 
months sprats were also known to be on the ground. The hauls, 
indeed, in these months are of much interest as showing the extent to 
which the presence of herrings and sprats causes predaceous fishes to 
assemble to prey upon them. In thirteen hauls in December, for 
example, while haddocks and whitings were almost absent, 383 large 
cod, 406 codlings, mostly large and all marketable, and 233 anglers were 
taken on the ground frequented by the herrings and sprats, the averages 
per haul being 29°31 and 18—far above the usual. The herrings and 
sprats included in the Table were all caught in the ordinary trawl-net, 
but in the small-meshed net very large numbers were taken, and this 
sometimes happened at times when none were got in the ordinary net. 
The use of a net of this kind may thus throw light upon changes in the 
abundance of many fishes at a certain place and time, the cause of 
which might otherwise remain obscure or be erroneously interpreted. It 
some instances, as at Sinclair Bay in June, it was found to be sand-eels 
which were attractive to the brill. 
None of the turbot taken, and only one of the brill, was so small as 
to be unmarketable, showing that the young of these species under 
about nine inches are not usually found within the limits of th depths 
stated when the trawling occurred. 
No brill were found at the Dog Hole, on the Fisher Bank, or on the 
north-eastern grounds, and no turbot were got in the nine hauls on the 
Fisher Bank. Two, however, were taken ina haul at the Dog Hole, 
123 miles off Aberdeen, in seventy fathoms, on 5th November ; one 
