+ 
the same place, SE of Sprogø; for, as it is well known, worms give the 
smallest cod, smaller than pieces of herring. 115 cod were caught, after 
the hooks had stood for c. 3 hours; moreover, 85 common dabs, 7 plaice, 
and 4 flounders. Only 7 cod were under 12 inches in length, and even of 
these, 5 were about 11 inches; one only was 7 inches, and another 5!/, inches. 
No cod over 18!/, inches was caught, as on the pieces of herring. — Small 
codfish can, consequently, swallow the bait, but two only did so. I take it 
for granted, therefore, that ihere are scarcely any small cod out here; not, 
however, on account of these few experiments only, but because it has 
always proved to be so by the many other experiments I have made, both 
with hooks and with seines, at this and other places on deep water. 
The small cod, on the other hand, were found at Slipshavn, on the 29th 
of March, on 3—4 fathoms of water, where the fishermen were seining for 
herrings. In two hauls they got at least 150 pieces between 3 and 8 inches, 
but no larger cod, or only very few. 
The measures of all the codfish, caught in these days, are stated in 
table I. — They form two distinguished groups. The small ones, between 3!/, 
and 8!/, inches, have all been caught in herring-seines, with the exception 
of two, and all the larger ones on the hooks. If was impossible to find any 
cod under 3"), inches in length, anywhere im the whole Belt. The attempt was 
made with many different apparatuses, so that I can state with certainty 
that hey were not found in the Belt at that time of the year. 
The smallest group in table I is the fry of last year (1899), and the 
large group is formed by the older ones; how old the very largest are, is 
not known; but those c. 12—c. 17 inches long must be fish that are two 
years old. 
The largest cod from the deep water were spawning; nearly all the 
males were full of ripe milt, and some of the females of ripe spawn. Not 
so, however, the smaller ones under 14 inches in length. 
In the beginning of April, the waters around Fænø in the Little Belt 
were investigated in a similar way, and moreover with eel hand-seines, with 
the result that we found rather a large number of cod of last year's fry 
(1899), of the same size as in the Great Belt; but 600 hooks at'Flækøjet, 
a shallow place with zostera in the middle of the current, gave altogether 
only 43 cod of the older group. " The fishermen complained much of the 
scarcity of cod at this time. Also here the cod were spawning. 
On the 18. of April we found, at Sprogø, a quantity of eggs floating 
in the surface-water, partly eggs of codfish. 
As it was here in the Belts, in the spring 1900, with respect to the 
cod — that there were two distinguished groups, but no fry under c. 3 
inches — so it was also in the Limfjord. The same was the case at the 
said places in 1899, with that difference only that the youngest group was 
very poorly represented, and could be indicated, indeed, in greater numbers 
in the Little Belt only. Partly on account of these investigations, partly on 
