INVESTIGATIONS IN FORTH, 1890 AND 1891. 147 



larger number than the two previous years, the averages from 

 1886 being per haul— 15, 28 (1887), 13 (1888), 16 (1889) and 

 20 (1890). About one-half were saleable in 1890. The species 

 forms a favourite food of many fishes, and its apparent increase 

 is not objectionable. 



The important lemon-dab shows a tendency to diminish 

 during the five years. Thus in 1886 the average per haul was 

 16 ; in 1887, 47 ; in 1888, 17 ; in 1889, 11 ; and this year only 

 9 per haul, or a total of 771. It is not an abundant form, 

 though generally distributed, and frequents ground, as a rule, 

 unfavourable for trawling. It is often caught by the liners, 

 and in St Andrews 30 years ago was less esteemed than a 

 plaice of the same size. No great weight is to be attached to 

 the apparent diminution. 



The grey gurnard had the same average, viz. 9 per haul, 

 the lowest that had occurred in the series, but such small 

 numbers may be due as much to the habit of the fishes as to 

 any marked general diminution in their numbers. 



All the stations showed an increase on the previous year 

 except Station IV. (the line along the shore towards Gullane 

 Ness). The average increase per haul (saleable and unsaleable) 

 of the food-fishes found on each from I. to IX. is as follows : — 

 increase of 36, 78, 142, diminution of 133 (IV.), increase of 128, 

 3, 179, 197, 78. 



That with an increase of 27 hauls in 1891 the total number 

 of fishes should be reduced to 18,012 or less by 258 than in 

 1890 is sufficient proof that the work was less productive. It 

 is true that an additional winter month (January) handicaps 

 1891, but this is more or less balanced by the captures in 

 June, a month absent in 1890. The average per haul on the 

 total is 169 or 62 less than in 1890. 13,325 or 125 per haul, 

 were saleable, and 4,687 or 44 per haul, unsaleable. Every 

 month of the year was represented, though not all by an 

 equivalent number of hauls. 



The previous year the haddock gave way to the whiting, but 

 this year both yielded to the plaice, so that it might be argued 

 that here we have an instance of the nomad round fishes being 

 diminished by over- fishing in the open waters, while the less 



10—2 



