166 INVESTIGATIONS IN FORTH, 1895, 



Haddocks for a time may be scarce, but generally they appear 

 in similar numbers or in greater abundance than before, and 

 there is nothing in the whole history of this fish for hundreds 

 of years that would lead to the conclusion that any great 

 change by way of reduction has occurred. 



To meet the foregoing it is necessary for the critic to 

 resort to the arbitrary and very uncertain method of sub- 

 tracting no less a sum than £137,981 from the average 

 amount of the period 1895 and 1896, for haddocks caught 

 beyond 20 miles from shore. But he ought first to have 

 proved that there were no haddocks to be captured within 

 the 20-mile limit. It will not do to reply that large 

 captures were made at the greater distances. That is suffi- 

 ciently known, else the ships would not repeat the experi- 

 ment. If these ships had chosen to work within the 20-mile 

 limit they would have captured by skill and energy a large 

 number of haddocks which have been proved to be there, 

 and their fresh condition on landing would have enhanced 

 their value, so that this method of argument is dubious. 

 Besides, the records of haddocks caught beyond 20 miles 

 from shore, on which the calculation is made, have not been 

 produced. If the liners do not work the enclosed waters 

 for haddocks with the same pertinacity as the trawlers out- 

 side, that is not to be made the fault of the waters. Certain 

 fishes are there to be captured by every legitimate method 

 of fishing, and there are few — with the real interests of the 

 fishermen and of the country at heart — w^ho would, after 

 careful deliberation, restrict the method to line-fishing, which 

 remains very much to-day what it was centuries ago. If some 

 enclosed waters are only occasionally fished, and that with little 

 energy and enterprise, the question as to whether the country 

 gains all the benefit from such areas that it should at once 

 suggests itself. 



Plaice come next with a total of 8,299 or 44 per haul, 

 an increase of 8 per haul on last year. Of this number 

 almost all were saleable, only 33 not being of this category. 

 Though the number caught during the warmer months is 

 much higher than during the colder months, the proportion 



