SCIENTIFIC WORK IN THE SEA-FISHERIES. 257 



that the Dutch caught the largest proportion of marked fishes 

 (but it was said that they liberated them on their own coast where 

 a most active fishery goes on), the English following, whilst the 

 Germans caught least. 



Bearing in mind, therefore, that many of the Plaice so marked 

 may have been restless, indisposed to seek shelter in the surface of 

 the sand, and less active in avoiding the trawl, though continuing 

 to grow, it would appear that, whilst full credit is awarded to the 

 observers, caution is necessary in accepting these data as proofs of 

 the serious intensity of fishing in the North Sea and the Channel. 



The work in the northern section of the North Sea may now 

 be referred to. It was hoped that the extended experience of the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland would have produced during these 

 five years a store of substantial information drawn directly from 

 the fishing-grounds in their new ship. Personal contact with 

 the varied phases of the capture of sea-fishes, with their surround- 

 ings, and with their distribution, are indispensable for an accurate 

 grasp of the subject. Further, the consideration of their move- 

 ments, whether for food or otherwise, and still more of their 

 development and life-histories, as bearing on the practical pro- 

 blems to be solved, afford an ample field even for the most 

 unflagging investigator. It may have been the prospect of these 

 opportunities that caused the scientific representative of the 

 Scottish Board (Prof. D'Arcy Thompson) to guarantee results in 

 so brief a period as two years. 



On turning to the large 'Blue Book,' published at the end of 

 1905, with an interest intensified by the experience of the 

 excellent original work, which for so long a period has charac- 

 terized the Board's scientific staff, surprise was felt on finding 

 that about three-fourths of it consisted of hydrographical work 

 (part of which has already been published elsewhere), of a record 

 of pelagic fauna and flora, and of a review of eighteen years' 

 commercial statistics collected by the Granton Steam Fishing 

 Company, by Messrs. Johnston, of Montrose, and by the Board's 

 officials at Aberdeen, the latter arranged according to the scheme* 



:: Squares of one degree of latitude and two of longitude. Prof. D'Arcy 

 Thompson says two degrees in latitude and one in longitude. Dr. Fulton 

 arranged for these squares by taking every degree of latitude and every second 

 degree of longitude (see his paper). 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. XI., July, 1907. x 



