S) 
good deal in the Skager-Rack, on deep water, that a few young codfish 
were then sometimes found in the seine — e. g. north of Cape Skagen, on 
70 fathoms, July 15., 3 specimens. (See Report IX, p. 13.) These finds 
astonished me very much at that time, but when we compare them with 
the results of the latest Norwegian investigations, which I shall now mention, 
they are no longer so inexplicable. 
According to Hjort and Dall's "Fiskeforsøg 1 norske Fjorde. 1899”, we 
meet in Christianiafjord, and perhaps on the southern shores of Norway in 
"general, a state of affairs with respect to the occurrence of the fry of cod- 
fish, similar to that which we meet in the Danish seas. The conditions do 
not seem to be exactly alike every year — but I shall quote their own 
words (loc. cit. p. 76). "From April till October we were unable to find the 
fry, of any stage, in greater numbers. Even in 35 succeeding hauls, in a 
flat bay (Frognerkilen), we got only 7 codfish of a size of 7,5—11,5 cm (some 
of which perhaps were the fry of the year), and in spite of a very intense 
fishery, we got no better hauls in the fjords till the month of October. The 
fry of the year must be said, therefore, to be very scarce. AÅ similar scarcity 
of fry was thoroughly ascertained by us in the Christiania and Trondhjem 
fjords, and we found it most likely that the same was the case with 
respect to the whole of South Norway, east of Lindesnæs. For want of 
time, however, we were unable in details to draw the exact limits within 
which the fry occurs.” 
«On the other hand, we found great multitudes of the youngest fry, at 
all the places we investigated in the western ånd south-western parts of 
Norway, by the open sea. We could catch here as many as a hundred of 
these little codfish in every haul with a small eel hand-seine.” — Page 79: 
"In the beginning of the autumn, when the fry is c. 9 months old (in 
October), it occurs in the fjords.” — 
In the fjords and east of Lindesnæs, consequently, the fry of the year 
is very scarce till October, although the cod sheds also in the fjords here. 
The fry, therefore, must migrate a long way along the Norwegian shores, 
just as it must in our waters, for its proper home is only by the open sea; 
not till October can it reach into the Christianiafjord. 1899, however, seems 
to have been an especially good year for the fry of cod, both in our seas 
and, according to the investigations of Wollebæk, in the Christianiafjord; for 
already in the month of May 1899, he found not a few of the fry of the 
year at Drøbak. It is very likely, also, as the currents of the sea have not 
the same power and do not go in the same direction every year, that the 
occurrence of the fry of the codfish may vary too. How great the variations 
may be, time will show. 
In 1900, however, Hjort has followed the migrations of the fry of the 
cod farther away, on board the new Norwegian vessel Michael Sars, which 
is especially built for such investigations, and in "Aftenposten" of the 26., 
27., and 29. of January, 1901, he tells us that the fry of cod can live free 
2 
