of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



45 



latter, while abundant in the shallow water on the beaches and 

 estuaries, are not confined to them like the flounders and plaice, and 

 may be got in numbers beyond the range of the young plaice. The 

 adult is also more widely distributed, and is found in deeper water and 

 further from the shore than the plaice, but the numbers are much 

 reduced in the deeper water on the north-eastern grounds, where the 

 long rough dab, witch, and megrim exist in greatest profusion. On the 

 inshore grounds examined, in moderate depths, the dab is at least three 

 times more abundant than the plaice. In Aberdeen Bay a number of 

 hauls yielded 39,685 dabs and 12,475 pLiice, and when it is borne in 

 mind that a considerable proportion of the smaller dabs escape from 

 the meshes of the net — they can be seen swimming about the net when 

 it is hauled — it is evident the proportion is even greater than repre- 

 sented. In the Moray Firth the " Garland " caught altogether 

 24,615 dabs and 8813 plaice ; at the six inshore stations the proportion 

 was 1*3 dabs to one plaice, and at the outer stations in deeper water 

 the proportion was 24*2 dabs to one plaice. 



The hauls made in the " Dog Hole," ofl" Aberdeen, in from fifty-five 

 to seventy fathoms, yielded ten plaice and 383 dabs. On the north- 

 eastern grounds the abundance of dabs is much less. In six hauls 

 made in September, in sixty-five fathoms, sixty-five miles S.E. by E. of 

 Sumburgh Head, the number taken was fifty-three ; some were procured 

 in each haul — from three to seventeen. In October none were got in a 

 haul in 81 fathoms 97 miles N.E. of Buchan Ness, nor in 63 fathoms, 

 871 miles N.E. But, as was the case with the plaice, on the grounds 

 about eighteen to twenty-two miles south-eastwards from Fair Isle, in 65 

 fathoms, they were represented, 756 being taken in nineteen hauls, 

 the plaice numbering 193. In the series of hauls made by the " Cale- 

 donia " in June, in from sixty-four to eighty-one fathoms, about eighty 

 miles east from Buchan Ness, only two were caught, both taken in one 

 drag in seveiity-nine fathoms. In two hauls taken in May, about sixty 

 miles S.E. by E. of Flugga, Shetlands, two were caught, both in seventy- 

 eight fathoms. In a haul twenty-two miles east from Flugga, in eighty- 

 five fathoms, none were got ; but in four hauls in sixty-five fathoms, 

 about fifty miles from the Shetlands — a ground which yielded no plaice 

 — no less than 1188 were taken, one five-hours' haul producing 529 

 specimens. On the Fisher Bank the dabs were less numerous than the 

 plaice, the nine hauls yielding only twenty-six. 



The common dab may spawn far from shore and in deep water, for on 

 19th May most of those caught in the hauls in sixty-five fathoms, fifty 

 miles from land, were found to be nearly quite ripe, and some were 

 spawning. Ten females and five males which had passed through the 

 meshes of the otter-trawl and were caught in the small-meshed net were 

 subsequently examined and measured. They were all approaching ripe- 

 ness, the females ranging in size from 137 to 174 mm. (5|-6g inches) 

 and the males from 99 to 137 mm. (3g-5| inches). The temperature 

 of the bottom-water was 42° '5 F., and of the surface 46°-6 F. 



While that is so, however, comparatively few young dabs were taken 

 in the small-meshed net in the deeper water. On the inshore grounds 

 they were taken in great profusion, as small as from 32 or 34 mm. 

 upwards in May, and under 40 mm. in September and October ; but 

 offshore the smallest individuals were much larger. For example, in 

 the haul above referred to the smallest was 99 mm. ; and in the 

 September hauls, south-east of Sumburgh Head, only six common dabs 

 were found in the small-meshed net, and they measured from 1 20 to 

 150 mm., while there was a profusion of small long rough dabs from 

 28 mm. and upwards. In the haul on 31st August in the same place 



