600 KEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



After a long and difficult journey, I reached tbe Loffoden Islands to- 

 ward the middle of November, and immediately commenced my inves- 

 tigations near Skraaven, endeavoring to make the best possible use of 

 the short days. I found the young codfish under the same conditions 

 as when I left, all along the shore, even near the landing places, but, 

 although the season was much farther advanced than when I left last 

 time, their size was about the same. 



In order to find larger and older codfish I had to choose locations 

 where the bottom declined very abruptly. The last time already I had 

 chosen such a place and had found it very convenient for my observa- 

 tions. From the south a very deep inlet called " Galtvaagen '' extends 

 far inland; it is well protected from the sea and wind, and its bottom 

 falls off abruptly on both sides ; the inner portion has a flat sandy bot- 

 tom, which near the coast has a rich vegetation of algsc. Here I found, 

 both at the time of my departure last year and now, a large number of 

 small young codfish; I therefore hoped that in the deeper places of 

 this inlet I would find the larger young codfish on their gradual journey 

 toward the great deep. I soon discovered in the deeper places some 

 young codfish of considerable size, which, with their heads pressed against 

 the bottom, were swimming around among the stones where the bottom 

 began to rise toward the shore. These fish were, however, much more 

 cautious than the smaller ones, and could only with difficulty be enticed 

 to snap after the bait attached to my pursenet. As this way of fishing 

 is rather awkward except in places where the water is shallow, I soon 

 abandoned it, and got a fine line with two hooks baited with herring, 

 and a few days later caught some of these young codfish. The largest 

 measured 150 millimeters, or almost 6 inches, and were therefore consid- 

 erably larger than the largest I had caught just prior to my departure 

 last year. The young fish, scarcely half the size of the above-mentioned 

 ones, which kept near the shore seemed meanwhile to decrease in num- 

 ber day by day, and it finally became a rare occurrence to see them in 

 those places where formerly they had made their appearance in enor- 

 mous numbers. These young codfish were therefore evidently going 

 out ; and as I did not catch any more of the larger ones in the deep 

 places, I began to think that they were preparing to leave the coast for 

 good to undertake their long journey to the unknown j)laces far out at 

 sea where the grown codfish live when not near the Loffoden Islands. 

 When thinking more about it, however, I found that this could not be 

 the case. For they Avould go almost direct into the jaws of the large 

 schools of codfish which probably about this very time were approach- 

 ing the Loffoden Islands for the purpose of spawning; and, judging 

 from the greedy nature of these fish, there could be no doubt that they 

 would not spare their own offspring, but swallow unmercifully every 

 young fish which came in their way. I knew, however, that nature 

 takes better care of the preservation of the species than to permit such 

 an occurrence, and I therefore felt sure beforehand that they must still 



