71 
were caught again in the Limfjord. The results therefore did not 
show anything definite with regard to migration. The plaice made 
good progress in growth, however, and recently attempts have been 
made to transplant plaice from the North Sea into the fjord. 
The staff of the Plymouth Laboratory have, in addition to the 
extensive experiments made in conjunction with the other North 
Sea powers, taken the opportunity of the trawling experiments on 
the coast of Devon to mark and liberate a number of plaice. The 
results have been published by Mr. Garstang''^\ During 1901 and 
1902, 420 plaice were labelled, and 121 were recovered, or 29 per 
cent. Mr. Garstang gathers from the experiment : — (1) Plaice 
below 8 inches in length are practically confined to the inshore 
waters of the bays at all seasons of the year. (2) On attaining a 
length of 8 inches the plaice in Teignmouth Bay and Torbay tend 
to emigrate in summer into Start Bay, and in winter over the off- 
shore grounds. He saw reason for stating that the larger plaice 
migrated to the offshore grounds in November and December, and 
returned in March and April. The district thus appears to be self- 
contained, but were we to look for an indication of a general move- 
ment in a definite direction, such as resulted in the case of the 
Scotch experiments, we would be justified in saying that if it does 
occur it is an up-cliannel one. 
The opportunity was taken last year at the Northumberland 
trawling experiments to label and liberate a number of the plaice 
and a few other flat fish, and a preliminary report on the results 
was publishedf. The label used was the modified form of the 
Petersen label adopted in the international investigations. About 
200 of the fish were marked with labels sent from the Lowestoft 
Laboratory, the remainder with smaller but similar labels which 
we got made. Each label consisted of an oval numbered brass 
disc, a bone button, and a short piece of silver wire. The latter 
was passed through the fish in the interspinous region next the 
dorsal, or in some cases the ventral (anal) fin, and bent to secure 
the button below and the disc above. 
Altogether 482 fishes were thus marked and returned to the sea, 
after being carefully measured and in many cases weighed. The 
results up to December 31st, 1904, are given in the accompanying 
table (see pages 72 and 73). 
* Jour. Mar. Biol. Assoc., Dec., 1903. 
t 1903. Rep. Xorthd. Sea Dish, Com. 
