Holt — Survey of Fishing Grounds, West Coast of Ireland. 443 



tion of the immature forms, thougli at the same time, in the case of such places as 

 Lough Swilly, a large number of fine fish might thereby be prevented from reaching 

 the market. Fulton is of opinion that on the East coast of Scotland the majority of the 

 young Turbot are on the off-shore grounds. It seems to me that the evidence is all to 

 the contrary. Fulton finds a difficulty in accepting the statement that "thousands of 

 young Turbot may be found at some places in the shallow waters and pools on the 

 beach, and that they are largely destroyed by shrimp-fishers." I have myself taken 

 Turbot about 2 inches long at the sandy margin, at half tide, opposite the Laboratory 

 at St. Andrews whenever I made use of a fine seine net at that place (in September 

 and October), and do not doubt that such smaller forms as Buckland describes occur 

 there in the earlier part of the year.i 



SKILL — Rho7nhus Imvis. 



It appears that the immature Brill are most frequent about the 10 fathom line, 

 when between 8 and 14 inches long. The young (exclusive of the larval and post- 

 larval) stages appear to be passed at the sandy margins, and the life history generally 

 seems to be much the same as in the Turbot. 



At St. Andrews I have taken a few small Brill, about 2 inches long, in company with 

 Plaice and Turbot, about the same size, at the edge of the sands, and I do not know of 

 their occurrence in deeper water. I think it probable that Fulton's opinion that the 

 young are chiefly to be found at considerable distances from land will be seriously 

 modified when more evidence has been obtained.^ 



^ On looking over the bottom tow-net collections, made on the Donegal coast in 

 May, I have found a number of minute post-larval forms, ranging from ^ to about j^ 

 inch, which may perhaps belong to this species. They occurred at various depths 

 between 10 and 32 fathoms. I believe that after the completion of the post-larval 

 period the young Turbot at once approach the margin, and reach it before the end of 

 the first year of their life. Otherwise I do not see how the absence of intermediate 

 forms from our collections is to be accounted for. They do not occur amongst the 

 young Plaice in shallow water, nor amongst the young Dabs, which extend into depths 

 of about 30 fathoms, nor in the deeper water, down to 80 fathoms, frequented by the 

 young of the "Witch, Pole Dab, Lemon Dab, and Long Rough Dab. We have, in fact, 

 no record of their occurrence except at the margin. 



2 Post-larval forms, which I believe to be Brill, of about the same size as the Tur- 

 bot, were taken in the bottom tow -net in May on the Donegal coast between 10 and 22 

 fathoms. 



