REVIEW OF TRAWLING REPORT OF 1884. 29 



dividing the saleable fish from the immature/ there will be little 

 difficulty in remedying it. Besides, it was not the scientific 

 observer who regulated the sizes of the saleable fishes, but 

 fishermen engaged in an industrial pursuit, and who had to 

 bear in mind the demands of the public. Moreover, a fish of a 

 size that was saleable at St Andrews might not be so at 

 Aberdeen, and vice versa, though, as a rule, the variation under 

 this head was not great. According to the state of the market, 

 again, fishes — e.g., gurnards — that were saleable at one season 

 were unsaleable at another. As pointed out in the Report, 

 'It is remarkable that so good a fish should be liable to 

 variation in this respect, and that it should not always be taken 

 to market, even during the height of the herring-season.' Frog- 

 fishes even occasionally found a ready sale in the great central 

 towns of England after the head, skin, and fins were removed ; 

 and in the Outer Hebrides dog-fishes formed, and still form, an 

 important item in the crofters' diet-roll, the piles of skins in 

 front of their dwellings being characteristic. 



The supposition that because a standard of size is not rigidly 

 in evidence on every occasion, the conclusions will be more 

 or less fallacious, cannot be maintained when dealing with the 

 question of the food-supply. The public do not care whether a 

 fish is mature or immature in the scientific sense of the words, 

 but they are greatly concerned as to whether a fish is saleable 

 or unsaleable. Therefore, after the lapse of a considerable num- 

 ber of years, the author sees no reason to alter the views held 

 during the experiments for the Eoyal Commission on Trawling, 

 and which have been adopted in dealing with the statistics of 

 the Scotch Fishery Board in the present work. It is true the 

 distinction between the two groups rests on a size-limit, and is 

 by no means a haphazard convenience^ ; but it is unnecessary 

 to dilate on the special features as to maturity or immaturity 

 in an inquiry like the present — however important these may 

 be in other respects. What has to be done is to discriminate 

 between those which are marketable and those w^hich are not. 

 Besides, some writers seem to forget what was clearly stated 

 more than once in the Trawling Report, viz. that the commercial 

 1 Rept. S. F. B., 1894, p. 166, and present work, pp. 30, 31. 



