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Part III. — Tiventy-Jirst Anmtal Report 



the two grounds mentioned were made during the spawning-season, and 

 that the fishes had assembled in the comparatively deep water and at a 

 considerable distance from shore for spawning purposes. The catches 

 in autumn and winter are less easy to explain ; but there are instances 

 of a similar phenomenon with some other species. 



In the Doi-noch Firth, on 5th November, seven young pollack were 

 taken in the small-meshed net around the cod-end of the otter-trawl. 

 They measured from 128-169 mm. (5-6| inches), the mean size being 

 149- 7 mm. or 5^ inches. In Kilbrennan Sound, in shallow water near 

 shore, on 15th July four specimens were secured ranging from 53 to 61 

 mm. (2g-2| inches). These sizes agree with a spring-spawning ; and as 

 the young fishes are found in numbers in the rock pools and zostera- 

 beds in autumn, it is evident that they must cover, at some stage, a con- 

 siderable distance in their shoreward migration if the spawning areas 

 are situated as far from shore as the above facts indicate. 



Ling {Molua molva). 



Only 281 specimens of this species were procured, of which 252 were 

 obtained in the comparatively few hauls in the deeper water, especially 

 off Fair Isle, in sixty-five fathoms, in October, when as many as sixty- 

 eight were taken in one haul, other hauls yielding thirty- two and 

 twenty-six. It was much less common further south. A few were 

 taken in the Moray Firth, especially in autumn and winter, and in the 

 deep " Dog Hole," off Aberdeen, fourteen were procured, the haul in 

 June for one hour and five minutes yielding seven. The range of size 

 of the adults on the deep-water grounds is generally from three to four 

 feet ; the largest measured there was fifty-eight inches and the smallest 

 fifteen inches. 



Only four of the aggregate number were too small to be marketable, 

 one off Aberdeen Bay in October, which measured eleven-and-a-half 

 inches, and was got in water from thirty-six to forty- nine fathoms deep ; 

 the other three were taken in the deep water, one of them in eighty 

 fathoms. 



The trawlers get more ling than cod in the deep water east and north- 

 east of the Shetlands, but the proportion diminishes towards the shore, 

 and also southwards in the North Sea. Two were taken in the nine 

 hauls on the Fisher Bank in May. 



Hake (Merluccius vulgaris). 



The number of hake taken was also comparatively small, comprising 

 altogether 440 specimens. Of these a few were got in Aberdeen Bay, 

 mostly in summer ; forty-nine in the Moray Firth, of which twenty -two 

 were caught in a single haul in fifty fathoms about twelve miles from 

 land in November ; most of the others were got in August and July. 

 The greater number, viz. 373, were procured on the deep-water grounds, 

 and more particularly in the series of hauls south-east of Fair Isle, in 

 sixty-five fathoms, in October, where ling were also most abundant. 

 Here 339 were taken, the largest numbers in individual hauls being 

 forty-five, forty-two, thirty-five, and thirty-four, and some were got in 

 all the hauls but one, the average number caught per hour's fishing 

 being 3 '7. 



The catches on this ground were, indeed, somewhat peculiar, inas- 

 much as they included large numbers of hake, saithe, ling, and sharp- 

 nosed rays, as well as many picked dog-fish, several lythe, Norway 

 haddocks, and argentines — some more characteristic of grounds in the 



