6 BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF 



Upon being told by a boat captain that he had seen "over 

 20 fathom" cast up this year upon the shore, a test was made 

 and it was found that the veil would rarely be seen when along 

 the shore and would be unrecognizable after two hours of 

 exposure on the beach. Can it not be that the veils seen have 

 drifted out? 



The spawning ground of the north-European Lophius was 

 located b}^ Tailing in deep water up to 2000 meters; he be- 

 lieves that differences in physical conditions on the east and 

 west coasts of the north Atlantic are such that the North 

 American Lophius spawns nearer the coast, as had been sug- 

 gested by the reports of other observers ( Agassiz, Prince, and 

 others). It is, however, far from clear what these differences 

 are. Taning's inferences as to the location of the Lophius 

 spawning ground are largely based on capture of larvae. 

 The European records certainly suggest a difference in water 

 depths of spawning on the European as compared with the 

 American coast; but such a difference cannot be considered 

 as established until there are more exact records of the cap- 

 ture of early-stage veils with exact data as to locations, time, 

 degree of development, etc. 



The general appearance of these veils corresponds with 

 that described by previous observers. Their length was not 

 less than 25 or 30 feet. The younger veil was a pale orange 

 color as it floated in the water, pinkish on closer view; the 

 older appeared purple or lavender in the water. On close 

 inspection, the mucus of the veil is colorless with highly 

 reflecting surfaces. The orange color of the earlier veil is 

 apparently due chiefly to light reflected from the orange or 

 pinkish oil globule in the eggs. In the older veil the embryos 

 were nearly black with pigment; possibly a factor in the 

 production of the purple color is light refraction on the thin 

 plates of mucus around the capsule-like spaces in which the 

 embryos are inclosed. 



The early stage of development which these embryos pre- 

 sented when found enables us to fix the time of spawning with 

 considerable accuracy. As showm in figure 2, the embryos of 



