SECTION A.— GENERAL REPORTS. 



L — RE POUT ON THE TRAWLING EXPERIMENTS OF THE 

 'GARLAND,' AND ON THE STATISTICS OF THE EAST 

 COAST FISHERIES RELATING THERETO. Part VII 

 (Plate I.) 



I. INTRODUCTORY. 



During last year the trawling experiments of the ' Garland ' were carried 

 on at the various stations on the East Coast of Scotland, as in former 

 years. The stations in the Firth of Forth and St Andrews Bay were 

 examined once a month, so far as weather permitted, and those in the 

 Moray Firth and off the Coasts of Forfarshire and Aberdeenshire less 

 frequently. The number of ordinary trawlings or periodic examinations 

 of the stations in the course of the year was 158, of which 99 were 

 in the Firth of Forth area, and 40 in St Andrews Bay. The detailed 

 results of these trawling observations will be found in the various tables 

 annexed to this Report. 



In addition to the systematic inquiry into the influence of beam-trawling 

 on the abundance of the fish supply, the ' Garland ' carried on throughout 

 the year a series of observations on other important fishery questions. 

 Special visits were made, when the weather was sufficiently favourable, to 

 some of the fishing-grounds lying off the shore, and the investigations 

 concerning the spawning and spawning-grounds of the food fishes, the 

 nature and distribution of fish-food, the relative abundance and distribu- 

 tion of pelagic fish eggs, and young fishes, &c, continued. The study 

 and description of the collections of pelagic eggs and larval and post- 

 larval fishes have, as in previous years, been under the supervision of Pro- 

 fessor M'Intosh, F.R.S., and the results are given in the present Report. 



Continuous physical observations on the temperature and salinity of the 

 sea have also been made at the various trawling stations and along selected 

 lines in the Firth of Forth. These are dealt with in a special paper in 

 the present Report. 



During the month of August the 'Garland' was engaged in special 

 trawling and dredging work on the West Coast north of Oban, as 

 described in another paper. 



Owing to the closure of the whole of the Moray Firth within a line 

 from Rattray Point to Duncansbay Head to beam-trawling, which came 

 into force on the 22nd November last, the 'Garland' was despatched 

 thither for the purpose of making a careful examination of the present 



