258 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of the Board's scientific superintendent, Dr. Fulton, who contri- 

 butes the final paper in the 'Blue Book,' viz. " The Distribution 

 and Seasonal Abundance of Flat-fishes in the North Sea." A 

 second Report of a purely hydrographical nature has just ap- 

 peared, as if to emphasize the surprise in connection with the 

 first. 



Science, as well as the country at large, had anxiously looked 

 forward to a new and original series of fisheries' investigations 

 in the North Sea, based on a well-considered plan, and carried 

 out by the most skilful and experienced zoologists trained to 

 fisheries' work, and aided by all the scientific accessories of 

 modern times. Pioneer's work in this department is a thing of 

 the past, and random efforts are wasteful as well as inopportune. 

 The importance, indeed, of having zoologists trained to fisheries' 

 work on board the experimental ships was duly emphasized in 

 the case of the ' Garland,'* in which those on board simply filled 

 in blank forms, which were transmitted to the central office — far 

 from the field of operations — and where the compiler was out of 

 touch with nature. Unfortunately there is little evidence of the 

 scientific methods just mentioned in this ponderous 'Blue Book.' 

 If such experiments have been efficiently done in connection 

 with the international work, they are still, at the end of five 

 years, in obscurity. 



So far as can be gathered from these statistics, fishing rises 

 to a maximum in August, and falls to a minimum in December, 

 a feature shown a considerable time ago both in the pelagic 

 fauna of the Bay of St. Andrews and in the work of the ' Gar- 

 land.' Many random observations on the maxima and minima 

 of the food-fishes occur, such as that the Haddocks increase as 

 temperature rises, and begin to abate as temperature falls, and 

 that they show in recent years an inferior yield to the earlier 

 ones. The Whiting reached its highest curve in 1901 (winter), 

 and its abundance was generally converse of the Haddock. It 

 is unnecessary to deal more minutely with these remarks, which, 

 though interesting, have no real bearing on the present inquiry. 

 Even less can be deduced from the Montrose statistics, except 

 that they indicate a persistent rise to the present time. 



The opportunities afforded by the great captures of food- 



* The Scotch Fishery BoardVfirst ship for scientific investigations. 



