of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



51 



informed by the trawlers that thej get numbers of megrims beyond the 

 100-fathom Hne. 



No very small megrims were procured in the fine-meshed net. The 

 smallest in a haul in eighty-five fathoms in May was 114 mm. (4| 

 inches), the others, thirty-three in number, ranging up to 206 mm. (8 J 

 inches). Others were taken in October off Fair Isle which measured 

 145, 154 mm., &c. Holt has described young megrims nearly trans- 

 formed, from 19 mm., and others sit various sizes. They were got in 

 deep water (80 fathoms) off the Skelligs in August, and others, from 

 three to a little over five inches, in about thirty fathoms in Ballin- 

 skelligs Bay. 



The megrim, it may be said, was got in all the hauls in the deep 

 water off the Shetlands, and the numbers in different hauls did not 

 exhibit so great fluctuations as with the witch. It seems to be more 

 regularly distributed. 



Scald-fish {Platophrys laterna). 



No specimens of this species were obtained on the East Coast either 

 in the otter trawl-net, small-meshed net, or shrimp-net. Thirteen 

 specimens were got in the Clyde in October, November, and December. 

 They measured from 103 mm. to 123 mm. ; five were females, seven 

 were males, and the sex of the other was not determined. 



TuRBOT AND Brill (Bothus maximus, Bothus rhombus). 



Not very many turbot were obtained in the hauls on board trawlers ; 

 but a considerable number of brill were caught both in Aberdeen Bay 

 and especially in tiie Moray Firth. The total number of brill procured 

 during the investigations on board trawlers was 513 and the aggregate 

 of turbot was 95, the brill thus being about 5*4 times more numerous. 

 The figures show approximately the relative abundance of these two 

 forms on the inshore crrounds worked over — that is between about five 

 and twenty fathoms, but mostly between six and seven and fifteen or 

 sixteen fathoms. Had the investigations been carried on more exten- 

 sively in water somewhat deeper, the proportion of turbot would have 

 been slightly raised, because there is evidence that the turbot passes 

 out further from shore than the brill does. The " Garland, it may be 

 said, during the trawling investigations in the Moray Firth between 

 1886 and 1900, during which 308 hauls were made, caught sixteen 

 turbot and foriiy-eight brill, the proportion being here as 1 to 3. 

 P;itting other reasons aside, the proportion at the inner stations, in the 

 bays and territorial waters, was one turbot to 3*8 brill, and in the outer 

 stations one turbot to 1*7 brill. The number of turbot and brill 

 obtained at any time by the " Garland " was small, but it is of interest 

 to note that the proportion between the two species in the Firth of 

 Forth and St. Andrews Bay differs from that for the Moray Firth, the 

 turbot in both the former localities exceeding the brill in numbers in 

 the ratio of about 1 to 0*6. 



As a rule only one or a few of either, more particularly turbot, were 

 taken in a haul, but sometimes the number was much larger, as many 

 brill, for example, as seventeen, eighteen, twenty-two, and twenty-three 

 being taken in a single haul, while the maximum number of turbot was 

 eleven — in between six and seven fathoms in Aberdeen Bay in 

 November. In some cases, particularly in the Moray Firth — and these 

 chiefly at Burghead Bay — very considerable numbers were taken in 

 winter when herrings and sprats, or both, were on the ground, the 



