10 
the right side. Purtunus holsatus was as usual very common, and 
two Cyprina islandica were also procured. 
Skate Roads, September 3rd. — A single haul of 40 minutes 
duration was made here in' the morning, just before the occurrence 
of a heavy gale from the south east. 
Blyth Bay, September 11th. — After a day or two of easterly 
wind, which still continued, there was a heavy easterly swell, and it 
was only possible to fish the. bay from south to north. Allowing 
for the loss of time involved in steaming back to the south-end of 
the bay we fished 5| hours, commencing at 9-40 a. in. The air was 
53° and the water 53 u F. The fishing was, as will be seen, very 
good, but it was noteworthy that amongst the six gurnards 
caught, only one was the common gurnard, the other five being the 
Sapphirine Gurnard mentioned in the notes for July 23rd above. 
THE MARKETABLE FISHES CAPTURED. 
This season has been an extraordinary one as far as the weather 
is concerned. It has been cold and rainy, with prevailing easterly 
winds. The above notes and the last column in Table I. show to 
some . extent the general character of the weather during the 
summer. But the season has been no less extraordinary with 
regard to the fishing industry. The herring fishing and also the 
summer fishing for salmon and trout were most successful. Large 
numbers of mackerel were caught not only by lines, but in the 
salmon and trout nets, and the in-shore waters were teeming with 
sprats and young herrings. 
A trawl owner assured us that this year there have been very 
large catches of cod — as many as 40 score being obtained at one 
haul of the net. The landings of black soles have also been 
.exceptionally good — in one instance 250 pairs were caught in one 
night. A feature of the season has been the enormous quantities 
of small haddocks in all parts of the North Sea visited by our 
trawlers. Thousands of tons have had to be thrown overboard. 
Our trawling experiments show that the ground fishes were 
present in the in-shore waters also in unusually large numbers. 
The average catch was as follows: — Turbot 4, sole 21, plaice 
1G5, dab 121, flounder 5, Hat fishes 317. In the report for 1898, a 
chart was published showing the results in a graphic form up to 
that date. In the chart now given (chart 2) the results are shown 
