41 



there in April, but all the more iu May iu which month we were stationed three 

 times to the west of Ærø. We found single plaice eggs here, as wijl be seen from 

 the following extracts from the journal (see Tab. 1, western Baltic). 



D. G — 5 — 04. W. of .Skjolilnæs, 18 fm. Here we made a horizontal liaiil of 10 ininutes 

 witli the pelagic net on poles, thus near the bottom, and obtalned ca. 1000 fish egg.s; of these 10 

 were plaice. We also obtained plaice eggs at the .surface on that day. 



D. 17 — 5 — 04. \V. of Skjoldnæs, 18 fm. We were at thi.s time at the same station as 

 on the Gth. Plaice eggs were again found, but only 1 this time; it was taken with ca. 400 otliers 

 in a horizontal haul, wtth the pelagic net at a depth of ca. 8 fm. 



D. 30 — 5 — 04. W. of Skjoldnæs, 18 fm. This day we took no plaice eggs. 



Plaice eggs were thus found in the western Baltic till far on in May. 

 Tab. G shows that we also found plaice eggs in the Great Belt in May 1904. We 

 only found a single one however, taken on the 4th of May in a 5 minutes hori- 

 zontal haul with tlie pelagic net at a depth of 6 fm., S. E. of Sprogø. This haul 

 gave ca. 1000 fish eggs; only one of the plaice. 



Pelagic plaice youilg were taken in 1904 from March — June. There were 

 none in Fehruary and only three in March. This is the same number as was 

 taken of cod youug in this month, and the specimens were Just as small. 



April and May are the chief months for the plaice as for the cod, and 

 the varying hydrographic conditious of our waters thus cause an equally indiscri- 

 minate distribution of the plaice young as of the cod young. For the young of 

 hoth species it holds, that the frequencj^ is greatest iu the Skager Rak and western 

 Baltic. It has been shown in the section on the cod, that this condition is due 

 to the eurrents, which carry away the pelagic eggs and 3'oung from the Sound and 

 Great Belt with their extensions to the north and south, whilst the deeper water- 

 layers of the western Baltic, which coutaiu the eggs and young, only take part to 

 a slight extent in the movements. 



As appears from Table G, we took 166 pelagic plaice young in April and 

 May 1904. Of tliese 31 come from the Skager Rak and 103 from the western 

 Baltic. In the Kattegat only 17 were taken and in the Great Belt only 10, though 

 much longer time was spent ou the iuvestigatious in each of these regions than 

 iu the Skager Rak and western Baltic taken together. 



In June still a few pelagic plaice young were taken in our southern waters. 

 We found one in the southern Kattegat at Anholt on June 4th (Tab. 1, Kattegat) 

 and two in the western Baltic on the lOth and 13th of June (Tab. 1, western Baltic). 



As a rule however the plaice young have passed over into the bottoiu- 

 stage before the beginning of June. Many cod young are still pelagic in June, 

 so that tlie pelagic life of the plaice comes to an end earlier than that of the cod. 

 AVe thus also find the bottomstages of the plaice earlier than those of the cod. 

 The latter were not taken uutil June, whereas in 1904 we found the bottom-stages 

 of the plaice already in April. 



The distribution of the bottom-stages of the plaice in 1904 will be described 

 elsewhere by the Director. I have however shown in Tab. G in which region the 

 bottom-stages were taken in each single month, and in order that the characteristic 

 distribution might appear in the Table, I have distiuguished between the northern 

 and southern Kattegat, between the western and eastern Great Belt and between 

 the western and eastern parts of the western Baltic. It will thns be seen that the 



