INVESTIGATIONS IN FORTH, 1894. 161 



results shows that the circumstances of the two differ. The 

 number of hauls was also much fewer in the open area. 

 Lastly the irregularities of the totals, caused it is true by the 

 sudden increase of round fishes, show the usual uncertainty of 

 the pursuit. Thus, in 1893, the average of all fishes rose, 

 according to the Blue-book, in the open area to 267, a figure 

 only twice exceeded in the closed area. Further, while in the 

 closed area, the flat fishes, which have their haunts on the 

 sandy and other grounds in the estuary, always exceeded those 

 from the open water, the round fishes reached in 1893 in the 

 open area the highest average of the series, the next being in 

 the same area in 1890. It would, indeed, have been a satis- 

 factory solution of the difficulty to have found the food-fishes 

 of the Scottish shores substantially and surely increased by the 

 closure, but a perusal of the tables on p. 19 of the 13th Annual 

 Report of the Fishery Board, and more especially the remarks 

 in the concluding paragraph on the Frith of Forth after nine 

 years' work is disappointing : — In the closed area " the tables 

 show^ that among flat fish there was an increase of all kinds, 

 except lemon soles, turbot and brill. The greatest increase was 

 in long rough dabs."..." Among round fish there was a decrease 

 in haddocks and gurnards, and an increase in whitings and 

 cod." " In the open area, the decrease in the flat fishes was 

 common to all kinds except dabs, and there was a decrease in 

 haddocks and gurnards." An increase due to the abundance 

 of dabs and long-rough dabs is not of much importance in 

 either area ; but what is of more moment is the demonstration 

 of the fact that these returns from first to last in both open 

 and closed areas maintain on the whole a fairly steady character. 

 It is difficult to see, however, what relation the closure bears 

 to the averages. 



In 1895, the last year of the experiments in the Forth, 

 75 hauls of the trawl were made in the Forth during ten 

 months, five being colder months, viz. January, February, 

 March, April and December, and five warmer months, viz. May, 

 July, August, September and October. The total number of 

 fishes captured was 20,570 or 274 per haul, a comparatively 

 high average, sufficient to meet the statement of diminution, 



M. R. 11 



