The facts and experiments recorded in the preceding sections lead to the following main conclusions:—

(1) Plaice below 8 inches in length are practically confined to the inshore waters of the bays at all seasons of the year. They are especially abundant in Teignmouth Bay and Torbay, where they are caught with the usual trawl-mesh in numbers at least as great as those of all the larger sizes of plaice taken together. In Start Bay, on the other hand, these small plaice are far less numerous than the larger fish, which out-number them by eighteen to one (Table II., p. 449).