50 Part III. — Twenty-first Annual Report 



or about one in twelve ; the number rejected in the Moray Firth was 

 relatively greater than on the north-eastern grounds — viz., about one in 

 eight as compared with about one in twenty-two, showing probably that 

 the relative abundance of the smaller witches is greater in the Moray 

 Firth than on the deep-water grounds offshore. 



The smallest examples procured in the small-meshed net in May, in . 

 eighty-five fathoms, off the Shetlands, was 200 mm. (7g inches), but on 

 neighbouring grounds others were obtained measuring 169, 176, 183 

 mm. (6§-7| inches). In December, in seventy-five fathoms, about 

 seventy miles S.E. by E. of Sumburgh Head, only one was got in my 

 net, and it measured 126 mm. or five inches, the smallest in the ordinary 

 net being 208 mm. On 10th March, about 75 miles east of Balta 

 Sound, midway between the Shetlands and Norway, in 70 fathoms, a 

 very small witch was obtained in my fine net. It measured 59 mm., or 

 2 1 inches. It was probably approaching one year of age. At the Dog 

 Hole, off Aberdeen, specimens of 114 and 118 mm. were taken on 30th 

 July, and others of 107, 109, 113, and 117 mm. on 21st August. 



In the Clyde the " Garland" has obtained specimens of 106 and 114 

 mm. Holt has taken young witches about 1^| inches long in eighty 

 fathoms, off the Skelligs, on the coast of Ireland, in August. 



On the grounds south-east of the Shetlands they were found to be 

 spawning in May. The largest specimen I measured was 62*1 cm. or 

 about 24| inches, but individuals above twenty inches are uncommon. 

 The witch was obtained by Bourne in 200 fathoms off the Irish coast, 

 and it has been got in over seven hundred fathoms. 



Megrim or Sail-fluke (Lepidorhomhus whiff). 



This fish was taken in less numbers than the witch, and like it mostly 

 in the deeper water offshore. Only two were got in Aberdeen Bay in 

 ten fathoms in December, and only a few in the Moray Firth, where 308 

 hauls by the " Garland " yielded forty-one specimens. Two were taken 

 in the Dornoch Firth in November in from seven to thirteen fathoms, 

 and nine off Dunbeath and Lybster in eighteen and twenty-four 

 fathoms in January. Like the witch it seems to extend more into the 

 inshore waters in winter. In fifty-five to seventy fathoms, off Aberdeen, 

 si^ty-six were caught in eight hauls in May, June, July, August, 

 November, December, and January, all but two being marketable. No 

 megrims were taken in the nine hauls on the Fisher Bank in June. On 

 the north-eastern grounds they were taken in the greatest depths 

 worked at — up to eighty-five fathoms — and they were most numerous, and 

 more so than the witches, at the places furthest north-east. F^r 

 example, in three hauls in seventy-five to eighty-five fathoms, east of the 

 northern part of the Shetlands, in May, only four witches were taken in 

 the otter-trawl and 251 megrims, sixty -four of which were too small to 

 be marketable. Still further north-east, about 275 miles from Aber- 

 deen, or eighty miles north-east from the northernmost point of the 

 Shetlands, approximately in Lat. 61^ 15^, they were found in May in 

 numbers, along with witches, haddocks, and picked dogfish, two hauls 

 producing six baskets of large haddocks, two and a half of mediums and 

 small, three of whitings, and five of megrims and witches, as well as 145 

 picked dogs. Only the unmarketable fishes were in this case enumerated, 

 but as the number of megrims of this class was 106 and of witches 

 eight, while the proportion of unmarketable to marketable is about the 

 same among witches as among megrims, it is evident the latter were in 

 much greater numbers. The smallest megrims in this case measured 

 163, 173, 182, 184, and 186 mm., or from inches upwards. I am 



