INVESTIGATIONS IN MORAY FRITH, 1897. 205 



stations the maximum period is in October, closely followed by 

 August, then May, the other months being nearly equal. Now 

 the comparatively high average of 53 with which the observa- 

 tions commenced was obtained in A^ugust during a year (1887) 

 in which exceptionally high averages were present in the areas 

 of St Andrews Bay and the Forth. Next year (1888), with an 

 average of 23, the work was done only in May, a month which 

 shows an average not half that of August. The third year 

 (1889) had its working period confined to June, in which the 

 average is not half that of May. There was a decrease to 10. 

 The irregularities so common in fishing operations might easily 

 reduce the total average of three " poor " months to four, or one 

 under the lowest, whilst the same cause might readily diminish 

 an average of 5 to 3. No great weight need be placed on the 

 suppositions of the last sentence, yet the whole history of 

 fishing operations is full of such irregularities, which moreover 

 strongly characterise the haddocks in the second period. Thus 

 in 1892 the hauls occurred only in September, yet the result 

 (9) is 4 above the average. In 1893 a rise to 31 per haul, the 

 second highest in the series, took place in the maximum and a 

 medium month, the third (April) being a blank as regards 

 haddocks. Next year, the maximum month and one with a 

 small average only resulted in 10. The last three years of this 

 period had diminishing averages of 8, 2, and 3 ; yet the first 

 had a working period including one productive month for 

 haddocks, viz. August, whilst the second included both August 

 and October, so that the diminution must have been due to 

 other causes, which also seem to have affected the outer 

 stations since their average was smaller during these years 

 {vide Table XXVI.). Haddocks apparently were not plentiful 

 on the inner stations during the working periods, but their 

 numbers increased seawards, as the returns from the outer 

 stations and the captures of the liners in the closed area prove. 

 The haddock, indeed, was by far the most prominent fish in the 

 returns from that region. Thus in 1894, 153,529 cwts., in 1895, 

 178,370 cwts., in 1896, 156,703 cwts., and in 1897, 126,031 cwts. 

 of haddocks at least came from the closed area\ independently 



1 lUh Report S. F, B., Part iii. p. 20, 



