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may undoubtedly be said that the spawning of the coalfish on the Atlantic coasts ot 

 Europe takes place mainly in the first four months of the year. 



It may be said in general that we have not found the eggs of the coalfish in so 

 shallow water as those of the cod, as also, that we have not found them in deeper water 

 than ca. 250 meters. We see therefore that the coalfish must spawn in deeper water than 

 the cod, with which fact the distribution of the pelagic young is also in agreement, but 

 for the rest, I am unable to describe in detail the occurrence of the coalfish eggs, as 1 

 could not give sufficient attention to this matter. I shall therefore content myself wit hre- 

 ferring to the Norwegian investigations, according to which the coalfish mainly spawns at 

 a depth of ca. 150 meters, remarking only that at Iceland we have found some coalfish 

 eggs in so shallow water as 50 meters. 



With regard to the depths over which the pelagic young of the coalfish occur. 

 Chart II shows that the conditions are very much the same as for the cod, as most spe- 

 cimens are found within the 200-meter curve. The coalfish must therefore be reckoned to 

 the coastal fishes (in a broad sense), like most of the other Gadus species. Yet a closer 

 observation of the Chart and Tables shows that a larger number relatively of coalfish young 

 than of cod young were taken close to the 200-meter line, and not so few coalfish fry 

 were taken outside this line (see e. g. the lines on the south-eastern coast of Iceland), 

 although almost always not far beyond this. Beyond the 1000-meter line only a few 

 coalfish fry have been taken in all (ca. 35), namely, at St. 78, 1903: 9 spec, at St. 81, 

 1908: 21 spec, and at St. 181, 1903: 3 spec. (2 of which in the pelagic net). All these 

 stations further lie to the S. E. of Iceland, where the slope of the sea-bottom is very steep. 

 The young found there had thus only at most ca. 30 miles to drift out from the 200- 

 meter line with the coastal water, which as is known forms a belt or zone round the 

 coast and spreads outwards in the summer time when the flow of fresh water from the 

 Icelandic rivers and glaciers increases. The last-mentioned finds of the coalfish young 

 beyond the 1000-meter line are therefore not very surprising and do not in any case indi- 

 cate a great drift. More noteworthy is the find of a coalfish of ca. 2 cm. Jong at Stat. 60, 

 1905 (at the end of May), in the waters far to the west of the Faeroes (see Chart 1) over 

 a depth of 11 10 meters. There can naturally be no question here that this young coal- 

 fish had been carried out to sea by the coastal water, but it is extremely probable that it 

 came from the Kockall Bank or the banks lying to the W. of the Faeroes, one of which 

 the "Thor" discovered (St. 62, 1905, 60° 43' N. 10° 42' W. , depth : 190—210 meters). Various 

 things indicate indeed that there is a drift of the fry from the waters W. and S. W. of 

 the Faeroes in a northerly or north-westerly direction. Lastly, at St. 28, 13. May, 1905 

 (61°50'N., 3°00'W.; depth: 1550 meters), ca. 60 miles E. of the easterly Faeroese banks 

 3 large coalfish fry were taken (length: 18, 21, 27 mm.). 



There is thus altogether nothing in our results which would indicate that the coalfish 

 fry occur normally over great depths in the Atlantic far from the coasts; on the contrary, 

 the investigations show that the coalfish in these waters normally pass through their 

 development from pelagic egg to bottom stage in the neighbourhood of the coasts, although 

 a few specimens, quite inappreciable in comparison with the many, are found pelagic- 

 ally further out to sea. This is also in good agreement with the [fact, that of all the 

 gadoid species the coalfish is perhaps the one whose earliest bottom stages occur in the 

 shallowest water, namely right to the beach, where they appear at a minimum size of ca. 



