of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



191 



1892, and each re-captured about a mouth later, one had journeyed from the 

 neighbourhood of Inchkeith, seawards, a distance of 22 miles, while the 

 other had travelled in the opposite direction for about the same distance. 

 The one passing seawards was nearly 17 inches long, a size at which the 

 male sometimes becomes mature ; and as its movement took place at the 

 spawning time* it is probable that it was like the nearly ripe male above 

 referred to, on its way to the offshore spawning grounds. 



6. Thornback Rav. 



Of this fish 71 specimens were marked and put back into the 

 sea, and of these two were re-captured. One, 14-| inches in breadth, 

 liberated 14 miles east of Inchkeith ou 17th October 1889, was 

 caught by a trawler £ 6 or 7 miles south-east of the Isle of May ' in 

 January 1890, the distance between these points being about 13 miles. 

 The other, 14 inches in breadth, was set free off Gullane Ness on 25th 

 June 1891, and was taken by hook on 30th March 1892, 278 days after 

 liberation, half a mile east of Inchkeith, or 6 miles distant from the place 

 where it was set at liberty. 



7. Gray Skate. 



Twenty-three specimens of gray skate were marked, and one was 

 recovered by a trawler. It was placed in the sea on 8th December 1890, 

 at Station VII., Firth of Forth, and was caught again on the* 18th of the 

 same month 1 7 miles east of the Isle of May,' or 10 miles from the 

 place of liberation. It was lol inches in breadth. 



8. Herring. 



The importance of ascertaining something definite about the migrations 

 of the herring has been referred to in the Introduction, and at no part of 

 the coast is it of more importance than in the sea area of the Clyde. In 

 the spring of last year (1892), I marked a large number of herrings at 

 Ballantrae Bank. In this case the mark was made by a special instrument, 

 by which a triangular hole was punched in the tail of the fish. It was 

 anticipated that by this method a large number of fish could be rapidly 

 marked, and that since the edges of the aperture made would heal, no 

 injury would be caused to the fish. It was found, however, that unless the 

 hole was made very small the strand of tissue between it and the margin 

 of the fin was apt to break through ; and it was further obvious that the 

 mark was not conspicuous enough to catch the eye of those handling large 

 numbers of fish, and that specimens thus marked would probably fail to be 

 detected. The method was therefore abandoned. During the spring of 

 the present year (the herrings frequent Ballantrae Bank only iu the spring) 

 arrangements had been made to mark large numbers with a numbered tag, 

 but owing to the failure in the fishing this was not accomplished. At the 

 end of December, as the last batch of herrings were leaving Lochfyne, Mr 

 Scott, with the assistance of Mr Jeffrey, the Fishery Officer of the district, 

 succeeded in ticketing about GOO herrings caught by seine-net in 

 the vicinity of Lochgair, but none of these, or of the fish marked at 

 Ballantrae, have been, so far as known, recovered. These experiments 

 will be conducted on a large s -ale during the present year. 



*Vidc Tenth Annual Report, Part iii, p, 242. 



