THE COD FISHERIES NEAR THE LOFFODEN ISLANDS, 595 



smooth ou account of the ftitty substances wbicli with the algai had 

 collected near the surface of the water. 



This phenomenon is well known to the inhabitants of this coast, and 

 is by them called " Stromblalc^^ ; it chiefly occurs where there are sounds 

 M'ith a strong current, and it was nothing new to me. I nevertheless 

 resolved to give more attention to it, as I thought it probable that the 

 current might here have brought together a considerable number of 

 medusae and possibly in their company some young fish; and I was not 

 mistaken. 



Among the algSB I found numerous medusae, many of which showed 

 unmistakable signs of having lain in dry places for some time, and 

 were consequently more or less in a state of decomposition. Neverthe- 

 less I found among them some few that were strong and healthy, and I 

 soon discovered under them several young codfish, of which I caught 

 two. They were both very small, scarcely larger than the largest which 

 I had last year found under the medusae, so that they did not aid me 

 much in continuing my study of the changes of form and color which 

 the young codfish undergo. All those which I caught in this place 

 seemed to be very young, and probably belonged to those which had 

 been hatched last. 



But when our boat gently approached the above-mentioned smooth 

 streak I discovered large and small schools of young fish swimming 

 about freely ; they seemed to be considerably larger than the young 

 fish I had observed this year, and disappeared quickly as soon as the 

 boat approached them. After several futile attempts I at last succeeded 

 in catching some in my purse-net, and, to my great joy, found that they 

 were actually young codfish, measuring 50 to GO millimeters in length. I 

 could now examine them while still in a live condition, and thus supple- 

 ment the observations which I had formerly made on those which had 

 been taken from the stomachs of pollack, but which had all, more or less, 

 been in a state of decomposition. 



Now first I got a correct idea of the peculiarly beautiful coloring of 

 these fish during this stage of their development. It is quite differ- 

 ent from that of the full-grown codfish, and these young fish are cer- 

 tainly some of the prettiest-looking I have ever seen. The dark cross- 

 streaks which had already showed themselves on the larger of those 

 young codfish which I had caught last year, had now dissolved into 3-4 

 parallel lines of square spots of a more or less bright reddish-brown color, 

 which contrasted beautifully with the light color of the body, resembling 

 a chessboard in the regularity of their arrangement. The sides and 

 the head showed an alternating silvery or golden gloss. The character- 

 istic thread-like protuberance under the chin had now become fully 

 developed, as also the fins ; in fact, aside from the color, these fish could 

 immediately be recognized as codfish. 



I knew now where I had to look for them in the future, and supplied 

 myself with the necessary fishing implements. The only drawback 



