6 



fish in the Skager Rack. In 1879 a Swedish gunboat, the »Gunhild«, has made 

 some drauglits with »a sort of trawl« in the deep part of the Skager Rack and 

 caught Careprocfiis Reinhardi aud Baja lintea, but I have fouud no further 

 information of tliis expedition which, as far as I know, was made on the sug- 

 gestion of Professor S. Loven, and with Messrs. Hj. Theél and C. Forsstrand 

 onboard. At any rate no report has been published in a collected form. 



When G. G. Joh. Petersen, in 1886, wrote »Nye Bidrag til den danske 

 Huv-Fiskefauua«, he had, with respect to the Skager Rack, only the same 

 source to draw from. As regards the Cattegat, the matter was some- 

 what differeut; for though the gear which was used for the investiga- 

 tion, was here especially made to catch tlie lower animals, it could not be 

 avoided that a few fish were caught also. In this way, therefore, som few 

 species of fish were found, which were new for tlie Cattegat, and others, which 

 were but rarely caught, were proved really to belong to this sea. The thought 

 of a direct investigation of the fish fauna everywhere in our seas had not yet, 

 however, dawned upun him, — indeed, this did not happen till he had for 

 some years been engaged in actual fishery-iuvestigations. Till 1897 the said 

 works have, as far as I know, been the only sources of information respecting 

 the stock of fish in the deeper parts of the Skager Rack, and it will be under- 

 stood how eager P. was to investigate these parts, even though his investiga- 

 tions for waut of suitable vessels, equipped for this special purpose, must be 

 ver}' defective and sporadic. 



When you will make such a direct investigation of the fishes in a certain 

 sea, the first thing necessary is, of course, that you have suitable fishing-gear. 

 As to this question, however, I shall only refer to the report: »From the Da- 

 nish Biologicai Station. VIII. 1898«. Here we shall try to set forth the results 

 of the investigation which it became possible to make in the two years 1897 

 & 98, when the Biologicai Station was situated at Frederikshavn : In the Skager 

 Rack we employed the gunboat >:-Guldborgsund« and the inspection-steamer 

 »Havørnen«; in the Cattegat, a hired steam-tug, the »Express«. That the ma- 

 terials are so sporadic is owing, partly to the weather which, even for these 

 parts, was particularly unfavourable in the summer of 1898. — We had hoped 

 to be able to examine the Skager Rack and, at least, the northeru part of the 

 Cattegat, at various seasons, in order to see what influence the seasons had 

 on the stock of fish ; but we saw soon that we must content ourselves with 

 getting a summary view only of the stock of fish here. Such a view we think 

 we have got, though, with respect to the Skager Rack, it is far from exhaust- 

 ive. In order to further characterize the fauna of these seas, we have also 



