BARENTS SEA IN AUGUST, 1007. 73 



caught by means of long-lines in Lat. 71° 14' N., Long. 32° 46' E., a 

 position in the southernmost branch of the constant North Cape 

 Current. 



At this time the fishing on the Murnian coast was of no importance, 

 and the conviction of the fishermen was that no fish would be found 

 out in the open sea. 



Knipowitsch records that in March and April the Murman coast is 

 very deficient in fish, though quantities can be met with as a rule more 

 to the west (north of Finmark, etc.). Then the eastward migration 

 commences, the chief shoals still being found in the neighbourhood of 

 the well-marked warm stream. As summer approaches, they draw 

 near the coast, and the population of the open sea decreases. 



Late in summer the fish still press on to the east, towards the 

 neighbourhood of Cape Kanin. Late in autumn the return migration 

 from the coast commences, though many fish can remain till mid- 

 winter* off the Murman coast. 



Marked differences have been observed in the fauna as the bottom 

 temperature rises above the freezing point ; it is very rare to find the 

 valuable food-fishes present in water with a temperature below 

 freezing point. Bearing this in mind, it is probable that the use of a 

 satisfactory deep sea thermometer would greatly assist the efforts of 

 our own fishermen in these regions. As they first work in this sea in 

 June and July,-f when the influence of the Atlantic flood is com- 

 mencing to extend, a thermometer might prove as useful a guide as 

 the lead. Though it cannot be claimed that such an instrument would 

 show where fish are to be caught, futile trawling in the unproductive, 

 ice-cold Arctic water, which undoubtedly has taken place, might be 

 avoided. 



By means of a simple reversing thermometer of his own design, to 

 be worked on the ordinary leadline, kindly supplied me by Mr. D. J. 

 Matthews, of the Plymouth Laboratory, I was able to determine on 

 several occasions that the bottom temperature on the bank where the 

 plaice were chiefly taken was 34° F., or two degrees above freezing 

 point. The surface temperature at the the same times varied from 

 45°-48° F. In similar depths (34-36 fathoms) in the North Sea the 

 difference in top and bottom temperatures would only be slight. 



An English trawler in June, working in suitable depths some 

 distance to the eastward of the fishing ground now under consider- 

 ation, found an almost entire absence of plaice, and the icy coldness of 



* The winter in respect of the land, not sea. — G. T. A. 



t The tendency has been to make an earlier start each year. In 1907 the first trawler 

 left Hull on May 1st. 



