IIA(i-FIlSIIE8. 



1207 



burgh Aiiatoiaical iMuseum (iK)>;sibly the same specimen 

 as formerly descri1)e(l I))- Thomson). Nansen also states 

 that he observed in the Museum of Bergen a ripe; agg 

 which iiad been dredged up by 1). C. Danielssen at 

 Molde. In •Inly, ISSS, wliile examining a large num- 

 ber of (Tlutinuus Hags from Gullmar Fjord, I found in 

 an i!idi\idual ;5() cm. long, containing 12 large eggs, a 

 ripe egg furnished witii threads at the ends (G. Retzius, 

 Biol. Foren. Forhand., Bd. 1, Okt. 1888). This egg 

 was still attaciied in the mesovariuni, the third from 

 behind in the chain of ripening ova. It was larger 

 than the others, measuring 14 mm., had a yellower 

 colour, was blunter at the ends, and harder on the 



ri|>e as tiiose described by Steenstruf and tiie otlier 

 above-mentioned writers. Since that occasion I have 

 opened and examined several thousand Glutinous Hags, 

 but I never succeeded in finding another egg so far 

 advanced in development. 



On the 1st of January last (1S95), however, Baron 

 Axel Klinckowstkom (Ofvers. K. Vet. Akad. Forh. 1895, 

 No. 1) found, in a Glutinous Hag taken together with a 

 number of others in Gtdlmar Fjord by Fisherman Aback 

 a day or two before, an egg at about the same stage 

 of development as that described by me. This egg, 

 whicli was of a bright reddish yellow, almost orange- 

 coloured, lay (Mitirely free in the abdominal cavity and 



Fig. 36H. A Glutinous Hag, nat. size, seen obliquely from below ami from (be left. Abdominal cavity cut open to sbow its contents. 

 a, lobes of tlie so-called mesorcbium (male organ); b, a large, nearly ripe egg with thick, horny sbell and horny appendages at both ends, 

 of which the anterior was still attached to the mesovarium; c, less ripe eggs in the mesovarium; d, liver; e, /, intestinal canal ; <?, apertures 

 of the foremost nniciferous glands of the skin; k, apertures of the hindmost group of muciferous glands; ;, cloacal aperture; k, outer branchial 



apertures: /. nasal aperture: m. oral aperture. 



surface, whicli evidently consisted of a strong, horny 

 shell. The ends were each furnished with a horny 

 process 4 mm. long, which i)roved to consist of a bunch 

 lit' dense threads, all of them tipped with a button- 

 shaped thickening armed with four barbs. One (the 

 anterior) of these processes was attached to the con- 

 nective tissue of the mesovarium: otherwise the egg 

 hung free in the abdominal cavity. Fig. 363 repre- 

 sents this specimen of Mi/xiiie with the abdominal ca- 

 vity cut open and the ripened egg (h) suspended from 

 the mesovarium. Probablj- this egg was not quite so 



Scandhinvinn Fhhfs. 



dropped out on the latter being opened. Its total length 

 was ■20"5 mm., the egg itself measuring 16 mm., and 

 the two terminal bunches of barbed threads respectively 

 3 and l'r> mm. This find is of special interest as con- 

 firming the opinion that the spawning of the Glutinous 

 Hag is not restricted to any particular season. 



This is in effect our whole knowledge of this 

 question. Manifold endeavours liave been made during 

 the last two decennia by several investigators (W. MCller, 

 CuNXixfiHAM, Nansex, myself, Theel, Tullbehg, Klinc- 

 kowstkom) to trace the development of the Glutinous Hag; 



1.52 



