of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



247 



a few thousands would occupy a whole day, and where a hundred bottles 

 are to be examined there would be a great waste of time over simple 

 enumeration. 



The order pursued in this paper will be as follows: — (1) Notes on 

 the collections, beginning with those from the Forth, and going on to 

 those of the Clyde and Loch Fyne ; (2) notes on the larvse and young 

 fishes from the Forth, Clyde, and Loch Fyne ; (3) the details of the 

 collections taken there ; (4) the Moray Firth collection ; (5) Tables 

 showing the number of ova from the Forth, Clyde, and Loch Fyne. 

 In these Tables are given the day of the month, the station, and the 

 depth of water at which trawl was made, whether at the surface ( s), etc. 



Notes on Ova prom Firth op Forth. 



The ' Garland ' was in the Forth during the latter part of February 

 and the first part of March. The stations visited were — East of May 

 Island, half a mile, and from the May to two miles east. In 1894, at 

 the same time, the 'Garland' was about the same place, except on 14th 

 March, when it was further up the Forth. A comparison can therefore 

 be made. The predominant forms in both years at this time were haddock, 

 green cod, flounder and motella. In 1894 cod, whiting and poor cod 

 were almost entirely absent. In 1896 these three were common. In 

 1894 the whiting and poor cod were not got in any large quantities until 

 April, when the whiting was the predominant form. For both years, in 

 early March, the haddock was the commonest form — except long rough 

 dab in 1894 — and it is very probable, seeing that these eggs were got on 

 the surface and out at sea, they were not far from the spawning ground, 

 which would lie to the north-east, in accordance with the results of the 

 drift-current experiments — more to the north than east. The same 

 applies for the whiting and poor cod, the spawning time of which is 

 somewhat later. At this time the spawning of the green cod is almost 

 over, because the greatest number of eggs is got in the beginning of 

 March and in April 1894, only one egg was found. 



From May Island to two miles east trawlings were made at varying 

 depths — surface, 6, 14, 24 fathoms, and bottom. The most eggs were 

 got on the surface, and the number of eggs procured decreased as the 

 depth increased, the bottom net having very few eggs. In the mid-water 

 nets the green cod has a greater proportion of eggs than the other forms, 

 and this would lead to the conclusion — according to Mr A. T. Masterman 

 — that the green cod eggs were spawned further out to sea, and that the 

 embryo was now almost fully developed. 



The eggs of the long rough dab were not got in such profusion this 

 year as in 1896 ; the plaice shows about the same numbers ; the flounder 

 also ; whilst the dab in both is almost entirely absent. Motella, which 

 was present in every haul, is in greater numbers than in 1894. The 

 dragonet, gurnard, sprat, and turbot are absent from both lists. Their 

 spawning time comes later, because their eggs are present in the list of 

 1894 — the sprat in great num bers in April, the gurnard and turbot to- 

 wards the end of May, the dragonet at the beginning of June. 



Notes on Collection op Eggs prom Clyde and Loch Fyne. 



This is the first time that eggs have been taken from the Clyde at this 

 period of the year, and a slight glance at the tables will show that this is 

 the spawning period of all the common food fishes. During the first few 

 days of July 1890, eggs of the following species were found (Professor 



