166 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



were made from the New Brighton sailing boat. A few 

 were made by the " John Fell," and are included amongst 

 the others. The conditions under which the hauls were 

 made were not strictly uniform. As a very general rule 

 a shrimp trawl of 21 feet beam and 33 feet length of net, 

 with a mesh measuring half an inch from knot to knot, 

 was employed. Very occasionally a slightly longer beam 

 (24 feet) has been used. The greater number of the drags 

 made were two miles in length and one hour in duration, 

 and these conditions were adhered to as closely as circum- 

 stances permitted. Occasionally, however, the length and 

 duration of the drags were greater, more often less, than 

 the values stated, and from this cause individual hauls 

 are, strictly speaking, not comparable with each other. 

 In the treatment of the data it has, therefore, been 

 thought advisable to make the average hauls per month 

 the values compared, and as the averages of a number of 

 hauls have generally been used in whatever comparisons 

 we make, to that extent the error due to fishing under 

 slightly inconstant conditions has, we consider, been 

 eliminated. 



The recorded results of these hauls include (1) the total 

 numbers of edible fish caught, (2) the numbers of quarts* 

 of shrimps taken, (3) the numbers of the various species 

 of food fishes with (generally) their average sizes, (4) state 

 of weather, sea, wind, &c, (5) physical observations. The 

 commoner fishes taken are: — The sole {Solca vulgaris), 

 the plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), the dab (Pleuronectes 

 limanda), the haddock (Gadus ceglefinus), the whiting 



* We employ the quart of shrimps (the economic unit) as the measure 

 of the catch. A quart contains a variable number of shrimps, 200 to 400, 

 the variation being due to the varying sizes of the animals. The market 

 value varies from 6d. to 8d., that is the price paid by the consumer ; the 

 fisherman himself receives only about 3d. per quart on the average if he 

 sells his catch to the fishmongers. But a considerable proportion of the 

 shrimps caught (about one-third) arc retailed by the fishermen themselves. 



