— 120 — 
size, exhibiting samples in proof. He further agreed, at my request, to take with him 
two practised men, who were able, during the latter part of May, to measure samples 
from 24 different trawling catches. These samples, taken as a whole, showed a mixture 
of large and small fish; at some of the stations, however, unmixed samples of small fish 
were found. This will be seen from the following: 
Trawl Catches, Murman Coast. May 1913. 
| | 
Under Over 
| 40 | 40-44 | 45-49 | 50—54 | 55—59 | 60—64 | 65 
= Lf | 
Station 16..... | | 8.2 27.8 33.0 17.5 5.2 3.0 5.2 
a | Least mixed | 68 | ga 31.6 10.1 7.6 78 | - TE 
— Be... J 6.0 20.0 44.0 120 | 60 4.0 8.0 
= alleen | | 7.8 27.1 22.5 127 | 100 8.8 10.8 
| PERO |? Moderately mixed 2.1 23.2 22.1 147 | 12.6 9.5 15.8 
oe | 4.8 30.5 21.9 mA ET 7.6 18.0 
Se ieee: ee OU BB 9.3 12 8.2 24.8 16.5 28.9 
CN J m 30) to | Ko | 1200 an 7.0 | 380 
24 stations.... Average 7.5 17.4 19.7 12.7 1h12 | 8.9 | 22. 
This table shows a series of eight trawling stations, arranged in order of increasing 
proportion of skrei over 65cm. The six first stations exhibit very similar results, 
with a predominance of small cod between 40 and 50cm. These must be presumed 
to represent the younger, immature portion of the stock, present in the waters off the 
Murman coast in May. Not all the young fish, however, are here included, as the smal- 
lest sizes would not be taken in an English trawl, and, as we have already seen in the 
case of my own trawling experiments in the Varangerfjord, there were then, at about 
the same time, a great quantity also of quite small fish, of 10—14 em. in length. Judging 
from this, and from the figures for the above six stations, the predominant sizes of imma- 
ture fish here present in the spring of 1913 would be the groups 10—14, 40—44, and 
45—49 cm. This is exactly what is shown by the hauls made in the Varangerfjord, 
although the percentages for the groups about 40—45 cm. appear small, on account of 
the large number of fish of 10—14 cm. 
Hauls made with fine-meshed trawl. Varangerfjord 5—6 June 1913: 
10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 Over 65 
40 3 2 4 8 10 13 9 2 5 1 3 
We find, therefore, that the composition of these small cod is very irregular, with very 
low percentages for the sizes lying between the 10—14 and 40 cm. groups, as also for those 
between 50 and 65 cm. In May, the skrei were still but poorly represented in the samples 
from the Murman coast. The average for all the 24 stations is 22.4 9%, whereas the cor- 
responding figure for the Finmark waters at the same time is about 85 %. In some 
of the hauls made by this trawler, the skrei only amounted to about 5%. If we now 
compare this with the results of the marking experiments, we obtain a good idea of the 
successive eastward movements of the skrei up to the time when the Murman coast 
fishery begins, later on in the summer. 
