of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



21 



the cod-end was not brought in to the deck at first in the ordinary way, 

 but a hole was cut in it as it lay alongside the vessel and the cod 

 removed by a "clip" and passed along to the fish-hold; then the net 

 was brought aboard. As mentioned, the cod were all spawning, eggs and 

 milt flowing freely from them, and I was struck with their large size. 

 There were no small cod among them. It was not possible to measure 

 them all, but the smallest and the larger were put aside and measured. 

 The smaller female fishes ranged from 33 to 35 inches ; two males 

 measured 29| and 30 inches ; among a few " codling " taken I found 

 one measuring 27| inches, quite immature. Several smaller-sized cod 

 were brought up in a state of decay, and had been lying on the ground 

 dead for some time ; whether these had been caught previously by some 

 other trawler, escaped from the net and perished, was unknown. The 

 skipper (S. Caie) stated that at Faroe they sometimes get as many as 

 sixty score of cod (1200) in a single drag of three hours' duration. 



Besides the cod, several of the other fishes taken at this place were 

 ripe and spawning. Among the few coalfish caught I found a female, 

 measuring 40-|- inches, half spent, with the eggs flowing freely, and 

 several of the males were also mature. Most of the flounders, of which 

 267 were taken — 235 of them marketable — were also spawning, and it 

 is evident from a comparison of the records at other times of the year 

 that shoals of flounders come out from the shallower waters — no doubt 

 largely from the stretch of brackish water west of Gizzing Briggs — at 

 this season in order to spawn. Spawning females were found from ten 

 inches upwards, and spawning males from a size of eight inches. Some 

 plaice were also found ripe and spawning, though the number of this 

 fish, taken was relatively small, and still more were spent. Among the 

 common dabs the condition was not so far advanced, most of the larger 

 ones having the reproductive organ large and ripe, and a few were 

 just commencing to spawn. 



On this ground, therefore, spawning cod, coalfish, flounders, plaice, and 

 common dabs were found on the 30th and 31st March. It lies about 

 three miles from the nearest land, on the edge of, and partly over, the rough 

 ground that under ordinary circumstances is avoided by trawlers, the 

 depths being from thirteen to fifteen or sixteen fathoms. It is possible, 

 I may say, to fish over the rough ground when cod or other round fishes 

 are present in large numbers, the trawlers explaining that the cod-end, 

 and perhaps most of the net, is buoyed up from the bottom by the fish. 

 The locality lies well within the Dornoch Firth, and I think it will be 

 found that there is some peculiarity about the currents here that tends 

 to distribute the floating eggs, the movement of the water being north- 

 wards, rather as an eddy.* From the small number of plaice got it is 

 not certain that they spawn on these grounds in any great numbers, and 

 the same remark may be made about the coalfish. Clearly, however, 

 cod and flounders spawn there in great numbers. 



Before leaving the Dornoch Firth a haul was made for half an hour 

 with the small-meshed net around the cod-end, the trawl going into four 

 fathoms. The number of fishes taken was 1107, belonging to ten species, 

 as follows : — 



Codling, - 

 Haddock, 

 Whiting, 

 Herring, 

 Little Sole, 



27 

 16 

 2 



2 



1 



Plaice, 

 Flounder, - 

 Common Dab, 

 Sprat, 



Common Pipefish, 



74 

 53 

 46 

 870 

 16 



* Vide Fulton, "The Currents of the North Sea and their Relation to Fisheries," 

 Fifteenth Annual Report, Part III., p. 343. 



