AND DECENNIAL SUMMARY. 167^ 



per haul is different from that in the haddock. Thus, 1,115 

 were caught in 33 hauls during the colder months or 33 per 

 haul, while 2,219 were taken in the warmer months or 52 

 per haul. Contrasted with 1887 in which a working period 

 of only three warm months occurs, it is found that the 

 average of plaice per haul in that year was 73, the difference 

 in favour of the latter being 21. Here, then, is a case of 

 diminution which the advocates for restriction might legiti- 

 mately have brought forward. On going over the ten years 

 and separating the hauls during the colder months of 

 January, February, March, April, November and December, 

 and during the rest of the year (warmer months), as in the 

 accompanying table, it is found that the columns for the 



FORTH. 

 Plaice, average per Haul. 





Colder months 



Warmer month i 



1886 



19 



44 



1887 



— 



73 



1888 



2 



58 



1889 



33 



51* 



1890 



18 



42 



1891 



23 



44 



1892 



20 



35 



1893 



28 



40 



1894 



31 



45 



1895 



33 



52 



* Same no. of months and same no. of hauls in each (45). 



colder and the warmer months show considerable variation, 

 but it is clear that they stand at the end of the period 

 better than they did at the beginning by 14 on the colder 

 months and 8 on the warmer months. 1887 was a propor- 

 tionally high year, but there is no reason to think that the 

 resources of nature have been in any way materially altered 

 throughout the period. The usual variations took place, the 

 catch, for instance, in 1887 greatly exceeding that of 1892, 

 but the supply steadily kept up, both in the warmer and 

 the colder period from first to last. 



As in the haddock, the maximum monthly number of 

 plaice occurred in the decade in August, viz. 4,465, the next 



