water, on tlie shores, wlicro tlic latter are sandy aud liave not tuo iiiucli 

 vegetation, aud are uot too exposed to tlie direct dashiiig of tlie waves. 

 Wliere the dasliiug of tlie waves is too heavy, the sand is often i'oarse and 

 barren; but wliere tliere is some shelter, and the particles can remain among 

 the grains of sand, there the small plaice of the 0-group prefer to live. The 

 growtli of the precediug year, liowever, the I-grou]), whieh in the autuinn 

 is c. 4—7 inches (c. 10 — 18 ctni.) long, is also frei|uent. It is partly fouiid 

 together with the Ogroup on the sand, tliough as a rule on deeper water. 

 Where there are stoues and a ricli vegetation, as, for instauce, hi the Belts 

 on 8-7 fafJioms, it may often be troublesome enough to catch this group, 

 because the Hshing-apparatus (Petersen's trawl or English trawl with sinall- 

 nieslied codend) is apt to take hold of stenes or be filled with piants. That 

 it can be done, liowever, is shown by table 1, column II. In the ('attegat 

 it is, as a rule, owing to the conditions of the bottom, easy enough to catch 

 tiie group in great uumbers. In the following groups, II & III, which I 

 shall not liere make tlie subject of any closer examination, several of the 

 largest specimens, from c. 10 indies (c. 25 ctm.) aud upwards, are grown-up 

 lish. But as a whole the group between 7—14 niches (18 — 37 ctm) caunot 

 be looked upon as the grown up group properly so called. This is missing 

 in the tables as a particularly pronounced group, and probably also in 

 uature. If, on the otlier band, we go dowii into the Baltic Sea proper, for 

 instauce into t!ie sea oulsido the isles of Falster and Moen, and try to make 

 a similar arrangement of all the groups there, by fishing from the shore 

 where there are splendid sands, seemingly well suited to be the dweUing- 

 place of tlie Ogroup, aud out on the deep sea, theu we get quite auother 

 picture (Cmp. table I, column III). Here the stock consists, almost exclu- 

 sively, of a group of really grown-up fish, the males from c. 5 inches (c. 13 

 ctm.) aud upwards, aud the feniales from c. 5i'., inches (c. 14 ctm.) and 

 upwards. In spite of all seeking for small fish, both on the deep and on 

 the shallows, we have succeeded in getting only very few specimens which 

 may be supposed to represent a O and a I-group. The feniales of the 

 grownup group have here very large ovaries and are furnished with white 

 riugs around the red spots (PI. horealis). See "Publications de circonstance 

 Nr. 1. Conseil permanent iuternatioual pour l'exploration de la mer". It 

 was iuipossible, in the month of September, to determine the luaturity of 

 the males, but tliis has been done on other occasious; these also have 

 white rings. 



That the smaller plaice could uot have escaped us if tliey had been 

 living in this part of the Baltic, is proved by the faet that we caught many 

 other small fishes, both flouuders (PI. ^fiesiic) aud common dåbs (PL liniaiula); 

 the small flounders on the shores in shrimp-nets aud ammodytesseiues, the 

 small dåbs on fhe deep sea. There is uo doubt that the small plaice of the 

 0-group aud the I-group were rare in these seas, not ouly compared to tiie 

 large number of grown-up fish, for these are here more uumerous tban any 



