15 
DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST IIAl'L. 
The first haul, in some cases the only haul, which we endeavour 
to make on every occasion one of an hour's duration, was carefully 
dealt with as before, every fish, useful or otherwise, being measured. 
This has now been done for a sufficient number of years to 
enable us to compare the results of this method of experiment, with 
the one which had been adopted and carried out by the Chairman 
for some years .before we joined in the work, ami which for the sake 
of comparison we were desirous to continue. It has an historic 
interest moreover, because the method of Aid Dent was practically 
the same method which was adopted by Prof. McIntosh in 
the first experiments of the kind ever tried. The fishes caught 
at each haul were divided into two lots, the marketable and the 
unmarketable. The latter were at once returned to the sea, and. 
as we have pointed out before, with the result of a total survival 
at all events so far as the flat fishes are concerned. 
The Scottish Fishery Board's experiments when they were 
instituted were made on the lines of that adopted for registering 
our lirst haul, only two hours were usually given to each station 
instead of one, as in our case. But it is at once plain, apart from 
the fact that the measurements indicate the numbers obtained of 
the various sizes, that the returns merely take cognisance of all the 
fishes captured in a net of a given mesh, in our case. and. so far as 
is apparent, in that also of the Scottish Fishery Board of all fishes 
measuring 4" long or more. In other words,, the judgment of the 
eye is replaced by the automatic choice of the net. 
Is the shorter experiment made by the latter method to be 
preferred to the longer experiment made on the former plan ? 
Table II. (B) shows the average catches made by the net of 
the Hat lishes at the Hist haul from 1*97 to 1902, and from 
these results the right hand part of Chart II. has been prepared. 
It is plain from the tables and the chart that the two methods do 
not tell exactly the same story. A sudden rise in the case of the 
dabs in 1899 and a decrease during 1900 and 1901 is what is shown 
by the first haul. A steady increase, with a decrease only in 1901, 
is what the total experiment indicates during the same period. 
The first haul shows a decrease in 1899 and an increase in 1900, 
with regard to plaice. For this species, the total experiment gives 
practically an opposite result. The general improvement in plaice 
and the total Hat fishes is on the whole, however, borne out by the 
results of the first haul. 
