22 Fishery Board for Scotland. 



on tlie east coast of Scotland. Further, they say that, so far as is known, the 

 spawn is also uncommon on the west coast, though there, and off the south coast, 

 it had once or twice occurred recently. No definite records are given. 



A mass of spawn was sent to Williamson (1911) from Sandhaven, on July 15th 

 1907, from which embryos hatched out two days later. Again, on 25th June 1908, 

 a sample of eggs was sent him, which had been obtained 5 miles east of Loch Braca- 

 dale. 



On 4th May 1916, a sample of spawn was brought into Aberdeen Fish market. 

 It had been taken by the steam trawler Cygnet at 57° 37' N. ; 0° 53' E. The jelly- 

 like mass was taken off the net after a trawl haul. The mass of spawn was not 

 in the bag of the net, and there is no evidence as to the depth at which it may have 

 been floating. The sj^awn had been kept in a very limited supply of fresh sea- 

 water for three days on board the trawler. A number of living eggs was separated 

 from the gelatinous material and kept in a large volume of fresh sea-water in the 

 laboratory for some days longer, until the outhne of the embryo could be distin- 

 guished in the egg, thus p)roving that the eggs had been fertilised. As there were 

 no traces of developing embryos in the eggs when captured, it may be concluded 

 that the mass had been recently extruded. 



Meek (1903) records the capture of a sheet of spawn in herring-nets 15 miles 

 off Beadnell, Northumberland, at a depth of 5 fathoms, on 23rd July 1902. Pro- 

 fessor Meek kindly informs me that the embryos were far advanced in the eggs. 



A sheet of spawn has also been got from the neighbourhood of the English 

 Channel. Cunningham states that he received a sheet of sjjawn from Mr. Dunn, 

 Mevagissey (Cornwall), on 24th June, the eggs of which contained embryos well 

 advanced in development. He also remarks (1912) that the sheet of spawn of the 

 Angler has been frequently obtained ofi the south coast of England. 



Ehrenbaum (1905) says he has caught spawn in the Skagerrak in the beginning 

 of July. 



Schmidt (1906) states that, although Loj)hius lives in the northern j^art of the 

 Kattegat, it does not propagate there. 



The above are the positive records of occurrence of the mucoid bands, and, as 

 Prince remarks, their paucity is all the more remarkable, because the eggs float in 

 large masses in the sea, and, unlike most pelagic ova, would appear to be especially 

 subject to observation. 



The remaining records of spawn are from the Mediterranean, and these are 

 given by Lo Bianco (1908-9). A broad cluster of pelagic eggs with embryos in dif- 

 ferent stages of development was obtained on 21st January, and again a floating 

 gelatinous cluster (in which the eggs were all in the same stage of development with 

 embryos apparent) six-and-a-half metres long and thirty centimetres broad was 

 fished at a depth of three metres. He calculated that there were about 150,000 

 eggs in the mass, so that he had probably only obtained a portion of the mass. 

 The various records are shown on the accompanying table. 



[Table. 



