— 86 - 



down to the bottom of the sea. In the Northern North Sea the young fish remain in 

 summer in the upper warm layers, where the temperatures are the same as the bottom 

 temperatures in the Southern North Sea; compare in this connection the hydrographical 

 sections of the North Sea, fig. 9. 



The haddock concludes its pelagic stage at all events in very much greater depths 

 than the two previous species. Thus, the small bottom stages never occur in the strand 

 region and are also completely absent from the shallower banks in the Southern North 

 Sea (see fig. 14). On the other hand, it occurs in great quantities at the bottom in the 

 northern, deep parts of the North Sea and of the Skager Rak. On the Norwegian coast 

 it occurs up to the most northerly part of Finmark in the Barentz Sea, whereas its 

 spawning place does not even reach as far as the Lofotens. 



At Iceland we likewise find the earlier stages in quantities on the north and east 

 coasts, though the species does not spawn there. 



The young fry of the coal fish seek the littoral region earlier than those of the 

 other gadoids. They appear in great quantities on the east coast of Scotland and North 

 England, evidence of the ability of the young stages to distribute themselves in numbers 

 far from their spawning places (see fig. 13). They occur in the Skager Rak; this area 

 also lies far distant from their nearest spawning places. On the Norwegian coast also 

 they appear in great numbers, especially from Jäderen up as far as Finmark. In autumn 

 there is even, in the southern part of the land, a considerable fishery after the young 

 coalfish, which have been presumably spawned to no small extent on the North Sea Bank 

 (see Dam.^s' account of the relation between the spawning in the North Sea and the stock 

 of fish on the Norwegian coast). 



At Iceland Schmidt was able to determine the interesting fact, that although the cod 

 and the coalfish both spawn in quantities in the same locality on the south coast, yet the 

 littoral stages of the two are very different in their quantitative distribution. Whereas, for 

 example, the young cod chiefly occur on the north and east coasts of Iceland, but very few of 

 the young coalfish are to be found there. The latter on the other hand occur in quan- 

 tities on the south coast, where again the young cod are rare. This remarkable condition 

 can probably be explained in this way, that the small coalfish seek the coasts very much 

 quicker or, to express it better, earlier in the year than the small cod. The young coal- 

 fish prefer also a higher temperature than the young cod. On the Norwegian coast 

 further the coalfish has a more southerly distribution than the cod. 



