60 



Part III. — Twenty -first Annual Reiiori 



4*1. They were also abundant in May, off Fair Isle, in sixty-five 

 fathoms. None of the saithe got on the deep-water grounds were so 

 small as to be unmarketable, all the latter being caught in the Moray 

 Firth or Aberdeen Bay. The sizes on the deep-water grounds ranged 

 usually from about twenty-five to thirty-five inches, but some thirty- 

 eight inches in length were procured. The smallest measured I65 

 inches. The deepest water in which they were taken was in eighty-five 

 fathoms, north-east of the Shetlands — which was the deepest haul made 

 and the furthest north — but they extend further than this. 



Yery few of the young fishes were secured on board the trawlers, 

 whether with the small-meshed net or the ordinary otter- trawl. In 

 Aberdeen Bay in September, in from seven to nine fathoms, eight were 

 taken in the fine net, measuring from 140 to 171 mm. (5^-6| inches). 

 In August in Burghead Bay, in a haul in from five to twenty fathoms, 

 two measured 131 and 254 mm. ; in November in Aberdeen Bay, in 

 eleven to eighteen fathoms, one was taken 161 mm, in length. Smaller 

 forms were procured by the " Garland " in shallow water in June, their 

 length ranging from 24 mm. to 52 mm. (1-2J inches), and in the push- 

 net on the beach others were taken from 25 to 31 mm. In the Clyde, 

 among the tangles near shore, a number of specimens, taken in 

 September, ranged in size from 27 to 83 mm. 



Young saithe under a variety of names are caught by hook and line, 

 and in some places by nets, along the coast, the shore-loving habit of 

 the young being more marked than in most other members of the genus, 

 and in some respects comparable to that of the plaice. From the 

 paucity of specimens in these trawling investigations alone, it would 

 appear that they frequent more particularly the rocky margins. The 

 fact that the older forms are found in such numbers in deep water far 

 from shore is a proof of the extent of their migrations. Like the hake 

 and cod they are not unfrequently taken in the herring seine-nets in 

 the upper layers in places where the water is deep, and they no doubt 

 roam freely in mid-water, particularly in pursuit of herrings, mackerel, 

 and other fishes upon which they largely subsist. 



Pollack or Lythe (Gadus poUachius). 



Yery few specimens of this species were obtained, viz. forty, and they 

 were all got on three occasions. No less than twenty-eight were taken 

 in the trawl in Aberdeen Bay, in from six to nine fathoms, on 9th 

 November, all marketable. Other six, also marketable, were caught on 

 6th September in Spey Bay, Moray Firth, in from seven to nine 

 fathoms, and other six, five in one haul and one in another haul, in 

 sixty-five fathoms, south-east of Fair Isle, in October — and these were 

 likewise marketable. The fish is not uncommon at the Shetlands and 

 Orkneys, and occasionally the trawlers land small quantities from other 

 places. 



I give here in tabular form particulars regarding the pollack taken by 

 the trawlers. 



[Table. 



