CAN Am AX FISHERIES EXPEniriOy, 191 'rJo 



41 



the fish do not spawn; tho few eggcs, found outside the banks, will have been carried 

 thither by the current, and the longer they have been adrift since leaving the spawning 

 grounds, the farther will their development have advanced. On the spawning grounds, 

 therefore, we must expect to find newly-spawned eggs in the majority; outside these 

 localities, the later stages will predominate. 



The investigations in the gulf of St. Lawrence are, however, to a very great 

 extent free from these sources of error. It will be seen from the table that the 

 spawning was in full progress during the first cruise of the Princess in June, and that 

 so few late stages were found, may be explained as due to the fact of the hauls in 

 question being made comparatively early in the season. On the August cruise of the 

 Princess, however, this objection is no longer valid; the number of ova has greatly 

 decreased, the season being now-nearing its close, and a far greater quantity of eggs 

 in the later stages might have been expected. 



'On going through the tables for the cruises of the Princess it will further be 

 noticed that the proportion between newly-spaAvned ova and those in the later stages 

 is approximately the same at all stations, only exceptionally do we find the later stages 

 in the majority. No single station is so rich in newly-spawned ova as to exert a 

 dominant influence upon the result as a whole, and there is thus no reason to question 

 the representative value of the material on this head. 



As regards the number of larvae, this will always be subject to considerable 

 error, as the larvae are more or less endowed with power of motion, rendering capture 

 more difficult, in addition to which, their age is often difficult to determine. Com- 

 parison between ova and young will therefore be subject to greater uncertainty than 

 that between ova at different stages. 



One thing we can, however, state with certainty : that the number of larvae taken 

 in the gulf of St. Lawrence was remarkably small. 



In the case of the Acadia, the proportion between the different stages is somewhat 

 better; here, however, we must consider cod and haddock togeliier as one, these two 

 species being indistinguishable one from another in the early stages of the ova. 



Stiigel 



Stage II 



/ cod 



I haddock .... 



Lar' 



Aeadia II. 



\-= 72 

 = 275 



For these cruises, the results are as might have been expected, the May cruise 

 showing a comparatively large number early stages, with some advanced and a few 

 larvae, while that of Jvdy has many later stages and still more larvae. 



Before proceeding to consider the possible explanation of this great difference 

 between the occurrence of early and later stages in the gulf of St. Lawrence, it may 

 be of interest to compare the conditions in Canadian waters with those observed on the 

 principal spawning grounds of the cod in European waters, viz. : — 



LOFOTEN. 



The material upon which the following discussion will be based consists of but a 

 few samples from the otherwise extensive mass of material collected by Dr. Hjort 

 during the winter and spring of 1913, the remainder having not yet been completely 

 depth with as regards the stage of development of the ova. (Vide also Johan Hjort: 

 Fhictuations in the great Fisheries of Northern Europe.) 



