o4 Part IIL —Twenty-first Annual Report 
further down the east coast of Scotland. Two specimens are stated to 
have been procured in St. Andrews Bay, and also pelagic eggs believed 
to belong to this species,* but no specimen appears to have been ever 
found in the Firth of Forth, notwithstanding the close examination of 
that area, although three single eggs from the Forth—in March, April, 
and August—-have been described as belonging to this species.f It is 
stated by Cunningham to be common on the eastern grounds in the 
North Sea and the Brown Ridges, and Petersen describes it as occa- 
sionally occurring in Danish waters within the Skaw.{ It is also 
fairly common on the south and west coasts of this country, and was 
frequently taken by the “ Garland” in the Clyde. It appears, however, . 
to be about as abundant in the Moray Firth as in the Clyde, and the 
peculiarity of its distribution on the East Coast is noteworthy. Those on 
the northern part of the East Coast, as the Moray Firth, may have 
spread from the west around the north coast of Scotland. The largest 
noted by me measured 138 mm. (5,5 inches). 
Biack or Common Soue (Solea vulgaris). 
This fish is rare on the East Coast, and its rarity increases as one goes 
north. In the course of the investigations seven specimens were 
procured, three in Aberdeen Bay and four in the Moray Firth. One 
was taken in June, two in October, two in November, one in December, 
and one in February. The ‘“ Garland,” in 308 hauls in the Moray 
Firth, procured two black soles, while further south, in St. Andrews 
Bay and the Firth of Forth, twenty-three were taken in about a 
thousand hauls. It is much more common on the West Coast. 
Cop (Gadus callarias). 
Cod, either adult or young, or both, were taken in most hauls of the 
net both inshore and offshore at all seasons, but usually not abundantly, 
unless there was a special cause for their congregation together. The 
proportion between the adult cod and the codlings, and between the 
marketable (or large) and the unmarketabie (or small) codlings, however, 
varied very much. 
The total number of cod and codling taken in Aberdeen Bay in the 
hauls with the otter-trawl in the course of the investigations was 1841, 
of which 471 were cod, 1084 marketable codling, and 286 unmarketable 
codling. In the Moray Firth the aggregate number was 5059, 1767 
being adult cod, 2337 marketable codling, and (256 unmarketable 
codling, 
The averages for each class per hour’s fishing in each of the months 
in the two areas are as follows :— 
* M‘Intosh and Masterman, op. cit., p. 398. 
+ Twelfth Ann. Rep., Purt IIL, pp. 298, 299 ; ibid., Fourteenth, p. 226. 
+ Report of the Danish Biol. Station, tv., p. 46. 
[TABLE 
