22 
class of fish, kindly got for me by Mr. John H. Irvin, Aberdeen, 
and this enables me to say that the fish caught, in round numbers, 
amounted to about 18,000. 
This is an immense number of fish to be caught by one boat at 
a single haul. It is not a record catch either, though much above 
the average, and when we consider the large number of boats fishing 
from all the ports along the east coast it must be seen that heavy 
inroads into the number of food fishes inhabiting the North Sea are 
made. Still the trawler, unless an accident happens to his boat or 
his gear, can always bring enough fish into market to leave a 
respectable margin after paying expenses. He tries here and there 
it he finds that the fish are no longer in the place where he was 
getting them in plenty at a previous occasion until he finds such 
another place. 
Off Fair Isle, where we were fishing, is practically virgin ground. 
It is not often visited by trawlers, and not by many at a time. In 
that particular area where we struck the fish there were what might 
be called shoals, or one great shoal of haddock and cod. They were 
attracted there by spawning herring, for the latter were feeding for 
the most part on herring and the former on herring spawn. That 
the several classes do not mingle to a large extent was shown in 
comparing a catch of the “ Mizpali’s ” with one made at the same 
time by the “Ben Ledi.” We had just got our first large catch of 
cod and haddock. The “ Mizpah,” fishing a little farther out, got 
scarcely anything but cole-fish, or as the skipper of that boat put 
it— “as many blackjack as I could bring in and throw overboard 
again.” 
The cole-fish, skate, and dog-fish were all rejected, and some of 
the codling as well. Of the skate, some were pretty large ; one 
monster I measured was six feet across the pectorals and seven feet 
in length. 
What struck me most was the absence of small fish. The flat 
fish were very large as a rule, and none were brought aboard even 
of the average size that we obtain in-shore. Unless in the case of 
codling, the destruction of small fish was practically nil. 
The fish in the other places whore we were getting a steady 
supply were evidently much more scattered, and the different classes 
of fish were much more equal in numbers. The food attraction 
was the reason of the inrush and concentration to this part. Some 
places are wonderfully constant in this respect. Although the fish 
