A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE gadoid fishes, and these spawn there in the early part of the year. Nearly all edible fishes except herring produce spawn which drifts at or near the surface of the sea ; and these drifting eggs are conveyed by the surface currents, due to tidal streams and to the prevailing winds, towards the shallow inshore Lancashire waters. There these eggs, having undergone their embryonic development while drifting in the sea, find their way ; and when the metamorphosis of the larva hatching out from the eggs is completed, the little fishes sink to the bottom, and finding a suitable habitat in our shallow water they undergo further growth. During May and June we may find hosts of small pleuronectid fishes in the sand pools on the foreshore, and in the autumn incredible numbers of such may be trawled. They are about i to i inch long when found on the shore in June, and about 2 to 4 inches long when caught in the trawl net in the autumn. They inhabit the shallow waters for the first two or three years of their lives, moving along the coast, principally from south to north, in search of food. When they are three or four years of age they begin to move offshore, and getting into deep water they then begin to produce spawn. Incredible numbers of them are, however, caught during the first year or two of their lives by the shrimp trawlers. Catches of 10,000 or more dabs, plaice, or whiting, have frequently been made in the course of the fishery observation carried out by the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Committee. The most abundant fishes of the Lancashire coast are dabs {Pleuronectes limanda), plaice {P. platessa), whiting [Gadus merlangus), soles {Solea vulgaris), solenettes {Solea luted), skate and ray (various species of Kaja, principally R. maculata, R. clavata, and R. batis), stingers {Trachinus viperd). Whiting are rather capricious as regards presence and abundance in any one locality. Dabs are always abundant, but are most numerous in the colder months. Plaice and soles are most abundant in the autumn. Herring in the form of ' sprats ' are occasionally very abundant. Skate and ray are ubiquitous and nearly always numerous. The above forms are those which we may regard as characteristic of Lancashire waters. The shallow sandy-bottomed waters of Lancashire, and the scarcity of rocks and seaweeds, constitute a habitat from which many species of fishes are naturally absent. Rock-loving fishes are therefore not abundant in our district, and their absence may be noted in the following list. Fish-collecting on the coast of Lancashire is a matter to be dealt with by the use of the trawl and line, and nearly all the species I mention have been caught by these methods. TELEOSTEANS ACANTHOPTERYGH 4. Sea Bream. Pagellm centrodontus, De la 1. Perch. PercafluviatUis,Uan. _ ^°^^«- Common in streams and ponds, ^^^^ ^°°"°" '" "°"** Lancashire waters. 5. Norway Haddock. Sehastes mrvtgicus (Ascan.) 2. * Ruff. Acertna vulgaris (Belon.) ^here is a specimen of this fish in the Liver- Used to be common m streams runnmg into pool Public Museum recorded from the mouth of the Mersey. ^^^ Mersey estuary in 187 1. It is, however, a 3. Bass. Labrax lupus (Lac.) northern form, and uncommon in the Irish Sea. Common in Lancashire waters, especially in 6. Short-spined Cottus or Bull-head. Cottus Morecambe Bay. It is caught chiefly by lines scorp'tus, Linn. or draft nets during the siunmer months. This is the commonest Cottus. It is taken 180
