15 



Hild any at Eckernforde in August; on tlie other haud lie cauglit 153 

 flounders. In 1893, fhe soufhern limit of fhe distrihution of the fry, in June — 

 September, seems conseqnenthj to have beeii )nore to the norfh than in 19o2. 

 The shores of Laaland, Falster, and Møen were investigated with particular 

 care in 1893, but we took liere altogether only one specimen. In spite of 

 eager investigation at Kerteminde, where the "Biol. Station" was situated, 

 the fry of plaice M'as not found here ou the sands till 1. June 1893, and 

 then already mixed with flounders as small as 8 mm in length. 



These two years, 1903 & 1893, are those in which we made the most 

 detailed investigations. Of other years I shall give the following information. 



lu 1901 Dr. Th. Mortensen investigated Bornholm from June 26. — July 

 6., without finding any specimen of the 0-group. 



In 1900, in June & July, the fry was found in the northern part of 

 the C'attegat and in the mouth of the Isefjord; at the latter place only iu 

 small numbers. At Samsø only a few were found, and at Reersø in the 

 northern part of the Great Belt, in sjjite of eager investigation, only 2 spe- 

 cimens. At Laaland, in spite of eager investigation, we found none. I 

 still remember, distiuctly, my astonishment at finding so few young fish 

 that year, as I had formerly caught many more in the Belt-Sea. I was 

 particularly desirous that year of pointiug out where to look for the head- 

 (juarfers of the sonthern race tvith the smaller nuniber of rays in the fins, but 

 wrote in my journal on board S. S. Sallingsund, the 21. of June, 1900: 

 "The result of our search for the 0-group this year seems then to be that 

 sucli fry is very scarce this year in the Great Belt and arouud Sejrø, though 

 there is a little everywhere, where there are the uecessary natural conditions. 

 The headquarters of the fry of the southern race must therefore, for tlie 

 present, be supposed to be on the eastern shores of NorthZealand and 

 MiddleJutland." 



This year, therefore, seems to have resembled 1893 in this respect that 

 the fry only proceeded a short distance towards the south in the Belt-Sea. 



I have through these investigations got the decided impression that the 

 fry in the Belt-Sea is uever so nuraerous as in the northern Cattegat, and 

 that its geographical distribution down there varies very much from year 

 to year. 



We may be quite sure, however, that the fry of plaice of the 0-group 

 is found every year ou the western shore of Jutland (in large numbers at 

 Esbjerg and Thyborøn); on the shores of the Gattegat towards west and 

 south (of Swedeii nothing is kiiown); and a longer or shorter distance down 

 into the Belt-Sea, sometimes as far down as the western part of the Baltic 

 Sea, west of Laaland and Femern, but onJy on the more ojjen s}iores and 

 at the mouths of the fjords, never deep into the Limfjord or the Isefjord. 



It is also most likely that the fry is not found in larger numbers, but 

 only singly, and esperially to/rards autimm irhen it has grown a Jittle large)', 

 in tlie seas east of Gedser — Darserort; but, eertainly, from Germany we 



