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few years ago, and that they are now scarcely to be found at several, nay 

 at most fishing-places, where they formerly were common. 



The Danish fishermen have a peculiar name for the large, often lean 

 and not very palatable plaice: »Hanser«, the PI. borealis of the older au- 

 thors (Gottsche, Faber), at a few places called »Prsesteflyndere« (i. e. spriest- 

 flounders*); these have evidently become rarer in the Cattegat of late years, 

 owing to their being fished up. But also those plaice which are the next 

 of size, and which afforded a valuable commodity, fish of about 20 — 30 lbs. 

 the score (corresponding to a length of 12 — 18 inches), have become rarer, 

 and the well-known »Frederikshavns-plaice«, which were so renowned for 

 their size and taste, are now almost a thing of the past. 



To catch plaice of 18 — 24 lbs. the score, we must now in under 

 the Swedish coast (or out of the Cattegat) where our fishermen did not 

 know how to fish ten years ago on account of the deep water. On the 

 old fishing-places they mostly get plaice weighing 9 — 15 lbs. a score 

 (corresponding to lengths of 10 (9 3 /i) — 13 inches). — 



Probably it was on account of this decrease in the size of the plaice 

 that the fishing- trade in the Cattegat in 1884 gave up using the score as a 

 standard and chose the pound in its place ; and just because the plaice was 

 not weighed in former times, it is now impossible to get information in 

 exact figures of its average size about 15 years ago. I have been able to 

 get only statements as the following: A fisherman who owns two fishing- 

 boats with tank tells that one of them »in former times« could hold 70 

 scores of plaice, but now (though it has not been made larger) it can hold 

 300 scores, so small have they become. — 



I cannot, consequently, give any real statistics to prove the decrease 

 in the size of the the plaice — but, I am sorry to say, they will scarcely be 

 missed. 



As above stated, I have not succeeded in fishing the 3-group of the 

 plaice in the Cattegat with my own fishing-gear in so many specimens that 

 it has been able to assert itself in the tables before the largest ■ specimens 

 of the 2-group, and I must therefore content myself with referring to table 

 I, which contains the fishermen's draughts of the 3-group; but as the 

 fishermen do not catch the small fish also, and as, further, the specimens 

 in the tables, as a rule, are assorted, the table does not show this group in 

 its proportion to the 2-group. — 



The 3-group seems also to be rather scarce in the Baltic, compared 

 to the smaller groups (table VII & VIII) which, as the fishermen do not 



