48 



Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



sometimes captured in almost fresh water in the vicinity of Alloa. The 

 herring are always followed by haddock and cod ; large haddock seldom 

 advance far up the Firth, but they often congregate in immense numbers 

 in the vicinity of the herring spawning grounds to feed on the herring 

 spawn. Small haddocks, on the other hand, make the Firth their head 

 quarters during the spring and summer. The haddock spawns in the opsn 

 sea in the early spring. Where the young haddocks spend the first 

 weeks of their existence we cannot tell, but in course of time, when a few 

 inches in length, thousands seek the shelter of the Forth. The favourite 

 feeding grounds of the young haddocks lie between Elie, Ness, and Burnt- 

 island, where there is abundance of small echinoderms and other favourite 

 food. The haddock shoals are usually composed of two broods, the 

 members of one probably being over a year old, while the members of the 

 other are only a few months old. As the weeks pass, the haddocks grow 

 rapidly, varying from three to six or seven inches in April ; they are 

 somewhat larger in July, and in August they measure from seven to ten 

 or twelve inches. After they reach a certain size they seek deeper water, 

 and finally leave the Firth for the open sea. For some reason or other 

 even the small haddocks begin to leave their summer quarters in August, 

 and during September very few either large or small are left in the 

 Firth. That all the young haddocks are not allowed to return to the sea 

 will be at once evident by a glance at Table D (page 130), which shows 

 the number of haddock captured from 1884 to 1886 by the Buckhaven 

 fishermen. This Table shows that from April to August of last year 

 over 700,000 small haddocks and whitings were landed at Buckhaven. 



But the Forth serves as a nursery for the whiting and the cod as well as 

 the haddock. About these we have, however, not yet obtained any definite 

 information, but we have ascertained that large cod enter the Firth often 

 in immense numbers in the wake of the herring ■ hence, as Table D also 

 indicates, cod are more abundant in the Firth during the winter than 

 during the summer months. When the cod come in from the deep sea 

 they are unable at first to bear the brackish water, and hence they move 

 upwards along the deeper parts of the Firth, but after a time they get 

 accustomed to the lower specific gravity of the water, and often follow the 

 herring a considerable distance above Queensferry. When returning to 

 the sea, which they do in March and April, they at first avoid the deep and 

 more salt water by swimming near the surface, and they often rest for a 

 time in the vicinity of Inchkeith before returning to the bracing waters 

 beyond the May. After once reaching the open sea their movements 

 appear to be uncertain, chiefiy because the spawning season is about to set 

 in. For example, during the present season large takes of cod were obtained 

 off the May daily for some weeks, but all at once they disappeared, the 

 females apparently leading the way, for one of the last trawls, while it 

 contained over fifty males, had only a single female. 



It has often been alleged that turbot were once abundant in the Forth, 

 but of this we have failed to obtain any trustworthy evidence. 



Turbot and halibut are now, as in former years, taken east of the May, 

 but seldom west of Inchkeith, and this seems to have been the case in 

 years gone by. On the other hand, flounders are said by nearly all the old 

 fishermen to have been extremely plentiful twenty to thirty years ago on 

 nearly all the sandbanks in the Forth, more especially along the south 

 shore ; and what is true of the flounders holds for dabs and most of the 

 other flat fish. At the present day, judging from the takes of the 

 ' Garland,' it must be confessed that flounders and other flat fish are 

 relatively few in number and of small size, and this is largely true of the 

 1 Fluke hole ' which at one time seems to have been li terally floored with 



