AND DECENNIAL SUMMARY. 175 



gains no support from the work of the '' Garland " in connection 

 with the lemon-dab. 



In relation to the other forms captured in the area of the 

 Forth during the ten years the following facts suggest them- 

 selves. Flounders remained at the end of the period very 

 much what they were at the beginning, and as it is not a fish 

 specially sought by any class of fishermen, and is one not 

 affected by the offshore supply of eggs, it might have responded 

 to the view that the closure increases the number of food- 

 fishes within the limits. No such tendency, however, is seen 

 either in this species or in the halibut, turbot, brill, sail-fluke 

 sole or topknot. All the latter appear as accidental captures 

 and in small numbers. In the monthly aggregates during the 

 decade the maximum for flounders occurred in March, followed 

 closely by April, these two months, especially March, being 

 associated with the spawning-period. The witches or pole-dabs 

 occur more plentifully than the foregoing, show similar yearly 

 variations in numbers, and were not in any visible way affected 

 by the ten years' operations. The monthly totals for the craig- 

 fluke (witch) are, like those of the flounder, comparatively small, 

 the maximum being in April, and the next in October. There 

 is considerable irregularity in the series, though the colder 

 months have the smaller numbers. The same remarks apply 

 to the hake, ling, conger, poor cod, bib, mackerel, pollack, 

 John-dory and sea-trout. Some of these, as the sea-trout and 

 John-dory, were only met with on one occasion, and the personal 

 experience of nearly fifty years of the neighbourhood shows that 

 this is in accordance with former conditions. It is well known 

 that both salmon and sea-trout are common in the sea, and not 

 always close inshore, yet how seldom are they captured in a 

 trawl. Their wide distribution is only now and then disclosed 

 by the rare capture of a young sea-trout in a herring net. Other 

 fishes like the gar-pike {Belone) and skipper {Scombresox) are 

 similarly situated, for while it is known they occur in consider- 

 able numbers, as the stomachs of sharks and other fishes show, 

 they are captured as a rule by neither liners nor trawlers. 



Four round fishes yet remain for consideration, viz. the 

 angler, wolf-fish (cat-fish), herring, and sprat, and it is inte- 



