of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
11 
allowed, were continued during the year as before. A special 
Report on this subject, with tables giving in detail the results of 
the examination of the various trawling stations, will be found 
under Section A. 
In the course of the year the various stations in the Firth of 
Forth, St Andrews Bay, Aberdeen Bay, Montrose Bay, and in the 
Moray Firth were examined, the stations being tested on 156 
occasions, as compared with 135 in the previous year. In addition 
to the periodic examination of the trawling stations, a number 
of special hauls were made at other times, and along selected lines, 
especially on the offshore grounds, for the purpose of ascertaining 
as much as possible regarding the occurrence and distribution of 
ripe fish, their floating eggs and young, &c. 
In regard to the results of the trawling experiments last year, 
it is necessary to limit consideration to the areas of the Firth 
of Forth and St Andrews Bay; since the 'Garland/ from its 
small size, can scarcely venture along the northern portion of the 
East Coast, except in settled weather in summer, and hence it is 
not possible to examine the stations off Aberdeen and in the Moray 
Firth as frequently as is desirable. In the Firth of Forth area, 
the stations were examined on 108 occasions in the course of the 
year, 84 of these being within the closed waters where beam- 
trawl fishing is prohibited, and 24 at the stations lying beyond it, 
where it is freely prosecuted. As a general result, it was found 
that a considerable decrease occurred in the total quantity of fish 
captured per haul of the net within the closed waters, as compared 
with the previous year. This decrease was owing to diminution in 
the abundance of round-fish, these fish having been exceptionally 
numerous in the year preceding. There was a slight increase in 
the number of flat-fish, as compared with 1890. In the open 
waters off the Firth of Forth there was a decrease in round-fish 
and flat-fish, the decrease in round-fish being specially marked. 
In the St Andrews Bay area, the result of the examination of 
the stations shows that there was also a very large decrease in 
1891 in the quantity of fish captured per haul of the net, when 
compared with the preceding year. This diminution was almost 
confined to flat-fish, which frequent St Andrews Bay in large 
numbers, the mean quantity having fallen from 303 in 1890 to 109 
iu 1891. The numbers of plaice, especially, were much diminished. 
The trawling experiments in the areas referred to have now been 
carried on for six years, and in the special Report will be found an 
analysis of the results during that period. Considerable fluctua- 
tions have occurred from year to year in the quantities of both round- 
fish and flat-fish captured, — due, no doubt, to a large extent to general 
conditions of weather and so forth, which affect sea-fisheries every- 
where. But, although the period, for this reason among others, during 
which the observations have been continued is not sufficient to 
justify any certain CDnclusions, it may be pointed out that up to the 
present the increase in the abundance of flat-fish within the closed 
areas has not been such as was anticipated. When the mean 
catch for the first three years is contrasted with the mean catch 
for the last three years, the following results are brought out : — 
