— 28 — 



there in the fjords during the months of April to August in all the three years. The 

 enormous quantities of small cod of the I-group found in the Qords of the east coast 

 must therefore have come into the Qords after the end ot August. Altogether, we may thus 

 sum up the results of the investigations of all three years, that the cod young appear on the 

 coastal margins somewhat later in the year at Iceland than in more southerly 

 waters (Ireland, Scotland), and further that they appear later than the young of the coalfish. 



2. The Faeroes 



The conditions under which the cod spawns at the Fseroes and on the banks round 

 these, greatly resemble those on the western parts of the South Iceland coast, and the 

 spawning occurs at about the same time of year and at similar temperatures of the water, 

 namely, from ca. 6° to ca. 8°.^ From the middle of April to the middle of May I have 

 been able to observe, that pelagic eggs of cod were present in the Fseroese waters in great 

 quantities and could be taken there to the number of several thousands in a 5 — 10 min. haul 

 with the townet. As the fishery of spawning cod begins however already towards the end of 

 February or beginning of March, we can hardly be in error in stating the spawning time to 

 be from the beginning of March to the middle of May, at least in the main for the cod at the 

 Fœroes, and even towards the end of May we were able to find the cod eggs in quantities. 



In April but few pelagic cod young could yet be found, but in May they were met 

 with everywhere in great quantities in the waters round the Fœroes within the 200-meter 

 line or at least not far beyond this, as can be seen from the Chart I where almost all the 

 stations at the Faeroes are for the month of May. The greatest number taken in a half- 

 hour's haul was about 300 specimens and the length of these pelagic cod young in May 

 was for most scarcely 1 cm. The conditions in June were not investigated, but on the 

 other hand those at the end of July, in August and September. As can be seen from the 

 records for Stat. 125 — 129, 1905, they were still met with in quantities pelagically in the 

 end of July (the majority at 3 — 4 cm.), though they were found at the same period in 

 quantities in the littoral region. This can be seen from some hauls with the eel-seine 

 made at Thorshavn on July 24th, 1905. Two hauls were made from a depth of 4^/2 meters 

 to the land (surf. temp. 9'52°, bottom temp. 9-00°), in which in addition to 3 specimens 

 of the I-group, 277 specimens of the young of the year were also taken, all in the tessel- 

 lated stage. The size of these young can be seen from the following table: 



cm. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 



No. 3 15 12 18 24 53 81 54 14 3 



from which it appears that they group themselves about a length of 4^2 cm. 



In August and the beginning of September 1903 a large number of hauls with the 

 eel drag-seine were made at various places round the islands, from which it appears that 

 the bottom stages of the year's group of cod occurred in considerable quantities everywhere at 

 the Faeroes in these months along with those of the coalfish. It also appears from these 

 that the majority of the young cod were ca. 5 cm. in the middle of August and ca. 7 cm. 

 towards the middle of September, whilst the smallest specimens of the I-group were 



' On the 26th of August 1905 we took 4 specimens, of .51, 55, 56 and 65 mm. in length. 

 ^ On the banks W. and S.W. of the Fœroes, e.g. the Faeroe Bank, the temperature is a little 

 higher than to the N. and E. of the islands. 



