no 



BATE OF GROWTH OF SOME SEA FISHES 



this stage I liave taken it^ though sparingly, in shallow water in 

 Whitsand Bay. Specimens in their second summer, just over one 

 year old, are abundant in June and July in Plymouth Sound and 

 elsewhere along the coast in shallow water, and are taken in 

 numbers by hook and line. Specimens of the same age and about 

 6 inches long are also taken by the deep-sea trawlers in depths up 

 to 30 fathoms. I have as yet, however, made only the above 

 records. 



Gadus minutus, the Poor Cod, 



The observations on this species are very inadequate, but they 

 supply some definite facts. The occurrence of more than two 

 hundred specimens less than 3 inches long in Whitsand Bay, 

 undoubtedly from ova shed the preceding spring, shows that the 

 young frequent shallow water and sandy ground. It is also clear 

 that the specimens, 4*5 to 6*4 inches, obtained on July 9th, near the 

 Eddystone, were in their second year. I have not ascertained at 

 what size the species begins to breed. But specimens of 4 to 6 

 inches, and just over a year old, were caught in the Sound and 

 placed in our tanks in the summer of 1889, and were breeding 

 there in March, 1890. I am pretty sure this was their first time of 

 breeding. I am not quite sure as to the size attained in two years, 

 but as the rate of growth in length decreases gradually, I think 

 those of April 19th, 1891, in the table, must have been two years 

 old. The poor cod never exceeds 9 inches in length. 



