INVESTIGATIONS IN ST ANDREWS BAY, 1884. 107 



of the trawl. Whatever the cause may have been the facts are 

 interesting. 



The two hauls by a fishing-boat with a .30-foot beam were 

 made in daylight in June, and produced 215 saleable fishes, 

 chiefly plaice, dabs, flounders, and thornbacks (36), the large 

 number of the latter probably being due to the close approach 

 made to the shore (sand). The smaller and mostly unsaleable 

 fishes (182) were chiefly plaice, dabs, and gurnards. 



Fourteen hauls, chiefly in daylight, by the " Medusa " with 

 a small meshed trawl of lO-ft. beam gave in July and August 

 514 saleable fishes, the majority being plaice and dabs. Only 

 two haddocks and five gurnards represented the round fishes, 

 which were too active to be captured by a small trawl. Con- 

 siderable variety, however, was shown, for turbot, bril], thorn- 

 backs, long-rough dabs, lemon-dabs, and flounders were repre- 

 sented. The unsaleable food-fishes were 833 — a comparatively 

 limited number when the small meshes of the naturalist's trawl 

 are considered, though quite out of proportion when contrasted 

 with the same class in the commercial ships. They consisted 

 mainly of dabs, plaice and gurnards, the largest number being 

 captured in August, in which month a young haddock, a few 

 poor cod, whitings and coal- fishes were included. There were 

 fourteen examples of other fishes, such as frog-fishes, skulpins, 

 pogges, &c. 



From the foregoing it would appear that St Andrews Bay 

 was, throughout, fairly supplied with food-fishes towards the 

 close of the open period, and that the enormous numbers of 

 small plaice and dabs formed one of the salient features. The 

 nomad fishes, such as the gadoids, gurnards, and herrings, were 

 more or less seasonal in their occurrence, the former especially 

 characterising winter, a single boat sometimes capturing from 

 50 to 80 cod within the limits of the bay. 



But in addition to this method of estimating the piscine 

 contents of the bay, an examination of the rocky margins and 

 of the tidal pools showed that in July swarms of young cod and 

 young pleuronectids occurred, the former, gradually increasing in 

 size, remained till late in autumn, while the pleuronectids distri- 

 buted themselves along the sandy margins and into the estuaries. 



