of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
297 
IV.— WEST COAST FAUNA OF 'GARLAND' EXPEDITION. 
By W. Anderson Smith. 
When the steam trawler ' Garland ' was on the West Coast of Scotland 
in June 1890, I was deputed by the Board to accompany it and advise the 
expedition. During the investigation into the oyster and mussel grounds, 
I took the opportunity of making as many examinations into the fauna of 
these seas as time could be spared for. Now that trawling is prohibited 
throughout these waters, to all intents and purposes, no other means of 
examining the fauna by the trawl is within reach of naturalists ; and our 
ignorance of much of this ground is such, that the proper examination 
of it must be regarded as of distinct importance. Both the dredge and 
trawl-net were employed throughout the district reaching from Skye to 
the south of Islay, but no very important additions were made to the 
fish fauna. We were also disappointed in the character of the fish 
captured by us during June. It is more than probable that, owing to 
the absence of herring, other fish were absent also, while the extremely 
stormy and backward weather experienced was in all likelihood the 
special cause of the absence of herring. In the west the herring shoals 
are largely dependent upon the prevailing winds, and the consequent 
presence of entomostracan pelagic fauna. We found these more especially 
scarce on this particular voyage — herring nowhere obtainable, and white 
fish of all kinds markedly deficient in quantity. That food was at the 
bottom of the scarcity of fish was further disclosed by the inferior 
condition of most of those captured, especilaly when the take was small. 
The rarer fish taken comprised a specimen of the Bed Band fish (Cepola 
ruhescens, L.), found in perfect order in the stomach of a skate, in the sound 
between Jura and Colonsay. The size was large, 22 inches, and the 
species is rare on the Scottish coast, although not uncommon further west 
on the Irish coasts. The beautifully marked little top-knot {Zeugopteriis 
unipundatus), first figured by me from Loch Creran in 1881, and brought 
under the notice of the late Dr Day, was found in Loch Linnhe, and also 
to the west of Mull in Loch Scridain. It is not so uncommon as might 
be thought from the rarity of its notification, but frequents ground 
seldom trawled, and rarely takes a bait. The sail fluke {Arnoglossus 
mega,4omay Donov.) proved also to be more widely distributed than we 
had otherwise occasion to believe, specimens occurring distributed over all 
the ground traversed from Skye to Jura and Loch Linnhe ; as many as 
five coming up in the net in Loch Sunart. A marked evidence of the 
lack of a valuable fish fauna in the west at this time is the almost total 
absence of cod, and the general scarcity of haddock. The only captures 
of eatable haddock were a few off Staffa and west of Bum. What were 
captured in the Skye lochs were in wretched condition, and showed 
general poverty of provand. The only turbot taken outside Kintyre — 
a fine one — was west of Bum ; while the only brill that encouraged 
us by its presence was taken from Loch-in-Daal, in Islay. In Clyde area, 
turbot, brill, and black soles. Lemon soles were only obtained in Loch 
Harport and Moonin Bay, Skye — on the latter ground living entirely upon 
young Pectunculus, whose hard shells they had managed completely to 
crush. In these western lochs the common, and long rough, dabs were the 
prevailing fish stock, and even monopolised the ground, plaice itself being 
exceedingly scarce. The * witch ' — another inferior flat fish — struggled 
for supremacy, and indeed held sway off Rum, where some eighty were 
