Se 
that the catches of large cod cease near the south-west coast of Ireland; this coast also 
marks the limit of occurrence of the newly spawned eggs. Round the coasts of Great 
Britain and in the North Sea, the cod spawn chiefly at depths between 20 and 80 metres; 
nowhere, however, were so great quantities of eggs encountered as in the Norwegian 
Sea. In Iceland waters, the spawning is, according to the excellent Danish investiga- 
tions, restricted to the south and west coasts; at the Faroes, it takes place all round 
the islands. 
On the Norwegian coast of the Norwegian Sea. it would appear that there exists one un- 
broken range of spawning grounds as far as Soro in the western part of Finmarken. East. 
of this island, or east of its western coast, the cod spawn only in small numbers, as is 
25 
20 
15 
10 
DES GO OC OM OS Mar TISE 
ZO) 8) GS) DOD) 
Fig. 55. Percentage of the different size groups (5 cm. groups) among 19,790 skrei 
measured in different years. 
carly shown, both by the results of the egg investigations and also by the statements 
of the statistics with regard to the quantity of roe taken by the fishery, which ceases at 
Sore. We have thus here reached the northern limit of the cod spawning g grounds. I 
had occasion to notice this fact during my cruise in 1901, and recognising the importance 
of the question, I understook a cruise during the present year off the coast of Finmarken, 
where I made numerous hauls. These gave precisely the same result as in 1901, showing 
the spawning to be very slight. Only a very few eggs were taken in the hauls, and in 
conversation with local merchants I learned that only a few barrels of roe had been salted 
during the winter from the large quantities of fish obtained east of Soro. 
Size of the skrei. 
As regards the size of the skrei, investigations have been made by measurement 
of large samples from 1902, 1903, 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1913. During some of these 
12% 
