48 



I. Gadus saida, Lepechin 



Over the wide region which has been investigated by the research steamers in the 

 past years, the early stages of Gadits saida were only found in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 North in Iceland in July 1903. This occurrence has been described in more detail by 

 Schmidt in his paper and in his systematic monograph'. He comes to the conclusion 

 that Gadus saida can reproduce in the coldest parts of the Icelandic waters in the years 

 when the ice approaches the north and east coasts of the island. The older specimens 

 are also so rare at Iceland that Schmidt only found 5 Gadus saida amongst hundreds 

 of thousands of Gadus callarias. 



In connection with this it may be mentioned, that Ehrenbaum describes some pelagic 

 larvae in "Fauna arctica", which Römer and Schaudinn found near Stor Fjord in Spitz- 

 bergen at the end of June, and which were considered as Gadus callarias. To judge 

 from the great similarity between the two species saida and callarias., we must conclude 

 that the larvae mentioned belong to the species Gadus saida, which in this connection 

 is of importance for the delimitation of the northern boundary of the spawning region of 

 the cod. 



2. Gadus callarias, L., Cod 



(see Chart fig. 1 2 J 



I. North Sea 

 A rich occurrence of the cod eggs in the North Sea was only found in the areas 

 lying between the two depth-curves of 20 and 80 M. Within a fairly broad belt (as far 

 as to the 20 M. curve) from the land in the southern, shallower part of the North Sea 

 very few cod eggs were found, and they were also scarce on the shallow Dogger Bank. 

 On the other hand, spawning places were determined in the deeper parts which surround 

 the Dogger; and the slopes which rise from these depths towards the 20 M. curve on 

 the coasts of Jutland, Germany and Holland, can especially be regarded as the true spawn- 

 ing places of the cod. Very rich samples were also taken over the slopes towards the 

 coasts of Great Britain, from North England to Shetland. Cod eggs were likewise taken 

 along the whole Norwegian North Sea coast, though not in such quantities as in the 



understand how much this fact has limited our acquaintance with the spawning places of these species, reference 

 may be made to the papers by D.'iMAS and Schmidt, where the actual details are described. 



1 JoHS. Schmidt, The pelagic post-larval stages of the Atlantic species of Gadus. Meddelelser fra Kom- 

 missionen for Havundersogelser. Serie Fiskeri, Bind i, Nr. 4. 1905. 



2 Ehrenbaum, Die Fische. Fauna arctica, Bd. 11. L. i. 1901. 



