— 198 — 
The first arrivals, which make their appearance quite early in the year, may exhibit a 
high degree of fatness, and great quantity of liver, whereas the spent fish are invariably 
destitute of all fatty matter to the uttermost limit compatible with their continued 
existence. 
If the variations in the quantity of liver from year to year were due to the varying 
condition of the cod in point of nourishment, it would be natural to expect that the spent 
fish should exhibit approximately the same quantity of liver each year. It is therefore 
interesting to compare the quantity of liver in the Lofoten skrei in different years at 
OO I Pe a Ae PO 7 ay SO ip 
Fig. 124 Amount of liver in Skrei from Sorvaagen (Lofoten) in first ( ) 
and last (- - - -) week of the skrei fishing season 1900—1911. 
the commencement and end of the fishing season. The curves in Fig. 124 show the amount 
of liver in the years 1900—1911 in early fish (taken during the first week of the season) 
and late, (closing week), all from one and the same place, viz., Sorvaagen in west Lofoten. 
It will be noticed that the two curves are more or less parallel. There are thus equally 
great fluctuations in the quantity of liver among spent fish and that of the new arrivals, which 
are in far better condition as regards nourishment. This would appear to strongly support 
the view that the fluctuations themselves cannot be due to the condition of the fish in 
point of nourishment. If, on the other hand, we attribute them, as I do, to the 
fluctuations in the composition of the stock m point of size, the facts are easily ex- 
plained. 
