648 



DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN 



though the individuals are few they are very interesting 

 because the localities are no less than 240 miles distant from 

 any shore. As the herring spawns on the bottom comparatively 

 near the shore, and the young are consequently born there, 

 these captures illustrate the actual migrations. Several of the 

 records obtained near the slopes of the coast banks of the North 

 Sea, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland are specially interesting, 

 because the fishermen always report that herrings occur in the 

 stomachs of ling and cod captured on the slopes of the banks in 

 summer. It will be an interesting object for future research to 

 ascertain if herrings may be captured along the bottom on the 

 slopes. This might be possible now that the trawl has proved 

 a fit appliance for the capture of herrings along the bottom, and 

 if successful would confirm the hypothesis of Sir John Murray 

 that this part of the sea bottom, the " mud-line," is a feeding 

 ground for these fishes. 



The Gadidae (cod, haddock, and saithe) have been taken in 

 the surface waters over the deep parts of the Norwegian Sea 

 far from the coast banks, but not in great numbers. The 

 species most numerously represented in these parts seems to 

 be the Norway haddock [Sebastes marimis). As will be noticed 

 from the chart it has been taken in many localities, and these 

 have been added to by recent investigations. Sebastes occurred 

 mostly at depths of 100 to 200 metres, and we captured them 

 by means of floating long lines, as shown in Fig. 74, p. 90, 

 in numbers bordering on the abundance necessary for com- 

 mercial fishing. Thus on one occasion we captured 65 fishes 

 on 600 hooks with salted bait. Two young specimens of this 

 fish were captured during the " Voringen " Expedition, and 

 during our cruises we have found the fry in thousands all over 

 the Norwegian Sea — a fact pointing to the existence and propa- 

 gation of a large stock of Sebastes in these intermediate layers. 



Among the squids Ommatostrephes todanis plays the most 

 important part in the animal community of the Norwegian 

 Sea. In his book on the Mollusca of Northern Norway, 

 G. O. Sars, referring to this form, says : "It is the commonest 

 squid on our coasts, and among the fishermen is generally 

 termed ' Akker,' ' sprut,' etc. They generally appear in enormous 

 shoals, coming from the open ocean in pursuit of the herring 

 shoals on which they gorge themselves greedily. In pursuing 

 the herring they often run up on the beach in their excitement, 

 and long sandy beaches are sometimes said to be covered with 

 the carcases of stranded squids. At Lofoten they have been 



