302 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



doubted. Elsewhere, there is no evidence of any large-scale hatching throughout the circumpolar sea 

 except in the late high latitude spawning ground in the shelf or slope waters of some sectors of the 

 East Wind drift, and, in conspicuous isolation, near o° in Weddell East. The conspicuous barrenness 

 of the South Georgia whaling grounds, as well as that of the entire Pacific region, is again to be noted 

 and again the very small scale of the hatching that has occurred in the shelf region of the Bransfield 

 Strait-North Graham Land area and over the large expanse of shelf water, now clear of ice, at the 

 head of the Ross Sea. 



In the East Wind drift there is evidence that hatching has taken place on a moderate scale in the 

 slope waters of the Ross Sea and Balleny Islands in January and February and on a major scale off 

 Enderby Land and in the slope region of the Princess Martha Coast in February. The dates on which 

 this evidence was obtained — namely, Ross Sea record, 28 January, Balleny Islands record, 2 February, 

 Enderby Land record, 28 February and Princess Martha Coast record, 17 February — all point, it 

 seems, to its being not in fact until February (or perhaps late January) that the East Wind spawning 

 becomes established on any substantial scale. It is clear, too, from the March-April distribution of 

 both deep and surface living larval forms (Figs. 71 and 75) that this spawning must take place 

 at scattered points all along the Antarctic coast from the neighbourhood of Cape Adare westwards 

 to the Princess Martha Land region, the most westerly point to which (Fig. i) on the Atlantic 

 side our coastal observations go. 



Along with the very large gathering of eggs at Station 2594 near 0° in Weddell East, exceptionally 

 large numbers of Second Nauplii and Metanauplii were also taken. In the 1500 m. water column 

 sampled on this occasion (assuming those in the 1500-0 m. net were all below 1000 m., see p. 89) 

 they were disposed as follows: 



Depth {m.) Second Nauplii Metanauplii 



Clearly they represent the very recent product of hatching of an unknown but probably enormous 

 number of eggs which must have existed at some level below, possibly far below, that of our deepest 

 net at this station. How the eggs came to be hatching in this deep situation, so isolated from that of 

 the large-scale and circumscribed hatching much farther to the west, and so far from the continental 

 slope, has already been discussed on pp. 208-10. 



The disposition of the Nauplii at Station 2594 provides a notable instance of the part the warm 

 deep water must play in the conservation of the euphausian stock (pp. 118-23). From their deep 

 situation it will be seen they will have a long way to climb, most of them 1300 m. or more, through 

 this current, likely here to have a southward trend, before they can reach the Antarctic surface layer, 

 here, directly above them, the north and east-flowing Weddell stream. There seems to be a distinct 

 likelihood however that they would not in fact reach the surface there, since during their long ascent 

 they might get carried towards the south and in view of the proximity of Station 2594 to the East Wind 

 drift, might, it seems, surface in that colder more southerly environment, be carried towards the west 

 and so eventually perhaps, as Sixth Furcilias or very young adolescents (p. 357), back again into the 

 Weddell drift. 



March-April. The March- April distribution of the deep larvae is shown in Fig. 71. Apart 

 from a notable exception in March, in the slope waters of the East Wind drift, off the Princess Martha 



