RAPPORTS. XIV: THOMPSON — 8 — 



is now more restricted than before, and practically includes the area C3 only. The lar- 

 gest proportion of haddock is still shown towards the north-east, in B5 and D2, though 

 in the former of those two regions there was a continuous decrease from year to year 

 in the percentage proportion of that fish; the same was also the case in Dl. In D2 

 the proportion of Haddock exceeded 60 % in every year of the five under consideration ; 

 it exceeded 50 % in every year in B5, and (with a trifling exception) in E ; it exceeded 

 40% in every year in C2, Fl and (again with a slight exception) in Bl and D3; in 

 C3 it never in any single year amounted to l %. 



Fig. 7. Percentage Proportion of Ling to Total Catch of Demersal 

 Fish landed by First Class English Fishing Vessels, 1906 — 10. 



Fig. 8. Percentage Proportion of Whiting to Total Catch of Demer- 

 sal Fish landed by First Class English Fishing Vessels, 1906 — 10. 



In the case of Cod (fig. 6), the main lines of the chart are again similar to the earlier 

 one, but the comparative abundance of this fish off our own eastern coasts is still more 

 strikingly shown. In areas B2, Di and Cl the mean proportion of Cod exceeds 30% 

 and in all of those areas (especially the first two), there has been a manifest tendency 

 to increase during the whole of the five-year period. A similar relative increase is shown 

 in other areas, for instance Bl, B4, B5, Dl and D3; while on the other hand there has 

 been a slight and gradual falling off in relative abundance on the great northern area Fl. 



While I have slightly modified the contours of the chart in the case of Ling (fig. 7), their 

 general trend is not very different. A steady increase is clear as we proceed northward, 

 from the insignificant catches over all the southern part of the North Sea to the south 

 of the Dogger Bank. On most areas there has been a tendency to decrease in the rela- 



