182 INVESTIGATIONS IN FORTH, SUMMARY. 



of each species in each haul^" it is apparent that a small yet 

 definite and appreciable diminution in size has occurred in the 

 area under consideration. This laborious calculation shows how 

 anxious the members of the department were to sift the case as 

 far as they could. But it seems to me that another and more 

 simple solution of the question may be found. If we compare 

 the immature (unsaleable, that is, small and very small) fishes 

 captured in the two periods of five years, it appears that 12,551 

 occurred in the first period, or 46 per haul, whereas in the 

 second period 33,142, or 74 per haul, were obtained. The larger 

 number of small fishes secured in the second period, when work 

 was much more thoroughly carried on (447 hauls in contrast 

 with 270), would of itself have a tendency to lower the average 

 in each species, and make the reduction to which the reviewer 

 alludes. It is, however, stated under the cod, that about equal 

 numbers were measured in the two periods ; but this affords 

 little information, since it is not explained whether the larger 

 or the smaller series were taken in the greatly preponderating 

 second period. Until these doubtful points are made clear it 

 is necessary to withhold sanction from the statement that the 

 size of the food-fishes in the closed waters has diminished. So 

 far as personal observations have gone, the food-fishes in the 

 areas have been throughout the ten years very much as they 

 were before the closure. 



In the review of the experiments of the " Garland," in the 

 Fourteenth Annual Report of the Fishery Board, great value is 

 attached, just as in the case of St Andrews Bay, to a comparison 

 of the work of the first five years with the work during the 

 second five years in the Forth. A preliminary comparison is 

 made of the captures in the closed area in 1887 and 1889, the 

 report showing that the average number per haul was more 

 than double in the former what it was in the latter. This 

 gives a key to the whole position, for any conclusion drawn 

 from a comparison of 23 hauls in the months of June, August, 

 and September in 1887 with 90 hauls scattered over ten months 

 in 1889 is hopeless, especially when it is found that five winter 

 months with their low averages form half the period. It is 



1 Op. cit. p. 142. 



