THE OLDER STAGES i8i 



of the Antarctic surface layer she concluded that the scarcity of gravid females there seemed to point 

 to their going deep to spawn. Subsequent analyses, however (Table 37), show that gravid females at 

 the surface may not in fact be so uncommon as Dr Bargmann's analyses suggest. At Station WS 915, 

 for instance, out of a total catch of 930 adults in the oblique (loo-o m.) stramin net 531 were females 

 undoubtedly in this condition,^ while other though somewhat less substantial concentrations of this 

 stage were found right on the surface in the 0-5 m. layer at Stations 2168 and 2195. Dr Bargmann 

 herself kindly re-examined for me the females taken at these stations and confirmed that all unmistak- 

 ably belonged to her category 7 A. It may be significant that all three records come from high latitudes 

 in the East Wind zone, a region virtually unrepresented by the samples she looked at. 



Further evidence of massing by gravid females at the surface has more recently been obtained 

 from another source. In January 1940 I found enormous numbers of them filling more than a quarter 

 of the stomach of a fin whale killed in the eastern part of the Weddell drift. The krill were quite fresh, 



1 Table 37 it will be seen shows Station WS 915 with 3186 gravid females in the surface layer. This, however, as explained 

 on p. 59 and again on pp. 282-3, is a corrected figure. 



