76 
position is very equally divided— two remaining where they were 
placed, two migrating to considerable distances to the north, and 
two returning to Skate Roads, it must be said, over or around an 
extensive area of rocky and rough bottom. 
If note may be taken of the smaller migrations, it may be said 
that the majority inclined to go north, but we cannot overlook the 
fact that a certain number found their way to the south. And 
these results would lead us to suppose therefore that the attractions 
of the food supply lead to small migrations of the immature fish, 
but there is no evidence to prove that a definite migration of plaice 
occurs in the inshore waters of Northumberland. It is to be pre- 
sumed therefore that the majority simply migrate outwards to the 
deeper water as they become mature. This is what has likely 
happened in the case of No. 879, but the locality of capture is not 
known. For the information I am able to furnish with regard to 
this and others which have left our district, I have to thank Mr. 
Garstang, Lowestoft Laboratory. 
A consideration of the two which migrated so far into Scotch 
waters suggests, in the first place, that if such a migration is at all 
general it is not necessary for the immature plaice to go up the 
Forth to get to the north side ; and shows in the second that it is 
only in the case of an approach to the locality which was the scene 
of the Scotch experiments that we get results strongly confirmatory 
of these. 
We have so far recovered 61 of the plaice, or 13 per cent. 
This is a large number, but it will be seen that it would have been 
still greater if the proportion returned from some of the bays had 
not been so disappointing. In the case of Cambois Bay we marked 
44 plaice, and did not recover one. Eighty-five were liberated in 
Alnmouth Bay, and only two were returned to us. We have been 
informed that the fishermen at Alnmouth captured a number of the 
marked plaice, but did not know where to send them. On the 
other hand Skate Roads yielded 20 per cent., Blyth Bay 15 per cent., 
and Druridge Bay 11 per cent. 
Growth. — Attempts have frequently been made to state the rate 
of growth for plaice, and the want of conformity in the conclusions 
is no doubt due to the fact that there is a considerable degree of 
variation, brought about for the most part by the long spawning 
