of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



331 



other cases, when the ovarian pressure is not sufficiently great to cause 

 such injury as that described, the eggs will gradually begin to 

 disintegrate, and the once very hard ovary becomes softer, while the 

 pressure is gradually diminished. In the course of the summer the 

 disintegration leaves the contents of the ovary in a semi-fluid condition, 

 containing fragments of the broken-up egg — capsules. While pressure 

 is still present part of this fluid may escape through the oviduct, and if 

 a fish in such a condition is placed upon a table some of this fluid 

 generally flows out. But I have observed that once the ovary of the 

 plaice has been excessively distended for any length of time it does not 

 again contract freely, and it is not therefore able to expel the entire 

 contents, and a certain portion of it must consequently become absorbed 

 before a normal state is established. From observations made during the 

 months of December and January upon plaice that had been egg-bound 

 during the previous season, it appears that this absorption is not always 

 completed at that time of the year, although I always found small eggs, 

 with more or less yolk, developing from the walls of the ovary. 



The above-mentioned difficulties have a great effect upon the success 

 of the hatching work as regards the number of fertilised eggs that may 

 be obtained from fish that have been captured immediately before or 

 during the course of the spawning season ; and the necessity of having 

 the breeding-stock of plaice collected at some other period of the year by 

 which these difficulties could be avoided, is therefore apparent. While 

 working at Dunbar, where the plaice had to be landed by the " Garland," 

 it was necessary, for the sake of time, to collect the fish when caught in 

 the greatest number — viz., when they gather on the offshore spawning 

 grounds. But as other facilities may be utilised from the port of 

 Aberdeen, it is to be hoped that the necessary supply of adult plaice may 

 be secured at the most suitable time of the year, as it is intended to 

 retain the fish from year to year. 



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