of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 189 
Going ashore on a Sunday morning in the trawler’s boat we observed a 
number of boys running to the beach in the harbour and picking up stones 
commence to throw them into the water. It at first appeared as if the 
action was meant for us, because the feeling against trawlers is very 
strong in the locality, and we were relieved to find the boys were 
_ attacking a large angler which had got into the shallow water and was 
floundering about there. It was pulled out by the tail and killed; it 
measured nearly three feet. 
There appears to be, at least in the Firth of Forth, a migration of 
young anglers in summer. During the early months of the year they are 
very scarce, but increase very considerably in numbers with the advancing 
season and increase of temperature. 
Il. Rate or GrowrTH. 
The information concerning the rate of growth of the angler is 
somewhat scanty, although it is sufficient to enable some conclusions to 
be drawn. The first thing to be considered is the period of spawning. 
Ripe males have come under observation earlier than ripe females. On 
3rd November a male, thirty-two inches long, caught off Lossiemouth in 
the Moray Firth, was quite ripe. On 20th and 24th December two quite 
ripe males were trawled in Burghead Bay, in from seven to fifteen 
fathoms, a few miles from shore ; one was twenty-seven and the other 
twenty-three inches in length. In May one was taken on Smith Bank 
also ripe, and thirty-six inches long. Holt found a ripe one in March, 
twenty-five inches long, taken in 115 fathoms.* Females apparently 
almost ripe, with very large ovaries, were taken in February on the East 
Coast, and others approaching ripeness. On May 25th one was caught 
nearly ripe, and on 7th July one, of thirty-six inches, that was approach- 
ing ripeness, the ovaries being more than seventeen feet in length. On 
3rd November, in the Moray Firth, a female of thirty-five inches was 
about half-developed. On 18th January, off the Caithness coast, in from 
eighteen to twenty-five fathoms, one of thirty-three inches was approach- 
ing ripeness. Holt found a spent female, of thirty inches, in June, and 
one of forty inches, also spent, in March. 
The floating mucoid band in which the eggs are imbedded has been 
obtained in June, July, and August.f One was got in the trawl on 
1st August in from 8—12 fathoms in Aberdeen Bay, the only instance of 
the kind that came under my notice during the trawling investigations ; 
but, from enquiries, I think such instances are not uncommon, although 
the trawlers do not recognise that the substance is fish-spawn. 
The mucoid substance was perfectly clear, transparent, and glairy, the 
eges being readily detected by the black pigment of the advanced 
embryos and the conspicuous oil-globules. As in other cases where the 
spawn has been found, the embryos were far advanced ; some, indeed, had 
already hatched. Part of the mass was kept in tanks at the Laboratory, 
and within a few days all the eggs hatched out. Some of the larve were 
kept alive until 18th August, long after the yolk had disappeared, and 
drawings and preparations were made; but they all gradually died off, 
evidently from starvation, although unfiltered water was used and tow- 
nettings added. Besides the dense black characteristic pigment, there 
was, it may be said here, much bright canary yellow, and in the older 
specimens the rudiment of the fourth ray of the first dorsal was formed. 
The little post-larval angler, about 10 mm. long, has a very odd appearance 
* Rep. Council Roy. Dublin Soc., 1891, p. 245. 
+ The eggs and embryo described by Prince in the Ninth Annual Report, p. 343, from 
Dunbar, were procured at the beginning of July, not in February. 
