60 Part I1.—Twenty-first Annual Report 
4-1. They were also abundant in May, off Fair Isle, in sixty-five 
fathoms. None of the saithe got on the deep-water grounds were so 
small as to be unmarketable, all the latter being caught in the Moray 
Firth or Aberdeen Bay. The sizes on the deep-water grounds ranged 
usually from about twenty-five to thirty-five inches, but some thirty- 
eight inches in length were procured. The smallest measured 163 
inches. The deepest water in which they were taken was in eighty-five 
fathoms, north-east of the Shetlands—which was the deepest haul made 
and the furthest north—but they extend further than this. 
Very few of the young fishes were secured on board the trawlers, 
whether with the small-meshed net or the ordinary otter-trawl. In 
Aberdeen Bay in September, in from seven to nine fathoms, eight were 
taken in the fine net, measuring from 140 to 171 mm. (53-6? inches). 
In August in Burghead Bay, in a haul in from five to twenty fathoms, 
two measured 131 and 254 mm.; in November in Aberdeen Bay, in 
eleven to eighteen fathoms, one was taken 161 mm. in length. Smaller 
forms were procured by the “ Garland” in shallow water in June, their 
length ranging from 24 mm. to 52 mm. (1-23 inches), and in the push- 
net on the beach others were taken from 25 to 31mm. In the Clyde, 
among the tangles near shore, a number of specimens, taken in 
September, ranged in size from 27 to 83 mm. 
Young saithe under a variety of names are caught by hook and line, 
and in some places by nets, along the coast, the shore-loving habit of 
the young being more marked than in most other members of the genus, 
and in some respects comparable to that of the plaice. From the 
paucity of specimens in these trawling investigations alone, it would 
appear that they frequent more particularly the rocky margins. The 
fact that the older forms are found in such numbers in deep water far 
from shore is a proof of the extent of their migrations. Like the hake 
and cod they are not unfrequently taken in the herring seine-nets in 
the upper layers in places where the water is deep, and they no doubt 
roam freely in mid-water, particularly in pursuit of herrings, mackerel, 
and other fishes upon which they largely subsist. 
Potuack or LytuHe (Gadus pollachius). 
Very few specimens of this species were obtained, viz. forty, and they 
were all got on three occasions. No less than twenty-eight were taken 
in the trawl in Aberdeen Bay, in from six to nine fathoms, on 9th 
November, all marketable. Other six, also marketable, were caught on 
6th September in Spey Bay, Moray Firth, in from seven to nine 
fathoms, and other six, five in one haul and one in another haul, in 
sixty-five fathoms, south-east of Fair Isle, in October—and these were 
likewise marketable. The fish is not uncommon at the Shetlands and 
Orkneys, and occasionally the trawlers land small quantities from other 
places. 
I give here in tabular form particulars regarding the pollack taken by 
the trawlers. 
| TABLE. 
