— 39 — JOBS. SCHMIDT 



eastwards round Cape North along the north coast. It can be understood that in other 

 years than 1904 (and 1903)' more of the earliest bottom stages of the coalfish may appear 

 on tlie north coast. It is possible tlierefore that in certain years larger quantities of the 

 pelagic fry of the coalfisli may be carried to the east and north coasts. And it has to 

 be remembered also, that an active migration of the older fry may well take place, e. g. 

 CO the east coast either round the north or direct from the south coast. That this may 

 happen is probable, as in May 1905 in our hauls with the eel hand-seine in Seydis Fjord 

 on the east coast we took the coalfish young of the year 1904 in considerable quantities. 

 In 5 hauls we obtained the following numbers of young coalfish on May 22nd 1905, 



cm. 19 17 15 13 11 9 7 



No. 11 4 19 22 76 98 76 24 3 1 



Concerning the appearance of the bottom stages at Iceland the following may 

 further be said. As at other places the youngest bottom stages of the coalfish are found 

 earlier than the corresponding stages of the cod. Yet their occurrence has not been proved 

 before the middle of June (on the west coast), but they will probably be found some- 

 what earlier, and least on the south coast. For the rest, they occurred on the north-west 

 coast in very considerable quantities in June and had then a length of 3 — 4 cm. (in 

 August the length was 4—10 cm.). On the north coast most of them had a length of 

 ca. 5 cm in the beginning of August and were a little larger at the end of this month, 

 as is shown by the results of our shore-investigations in 1904 (see p. 26)^. 



2. The Faeroes 



The eggs of the coalfish have been found at the Fseroes both in April and May 1904 

 (temperature 6°— 8°). In April already the pelagic young were taken, but the conditions 

 were not investigated very thoroughly until May. Almost all the stations marked on 

 Chart II are for the month of May. It will be seen from this that the fry of the coalfish 

 were distributed generally practically everywhere round the Fseroes in May. Most of the 

 specimens had a length of ca. Vh cm., but some were smaller and some larger (ca. 2 cm. 

 and more). Several hauls gave a large number of specimens, e. g. 172, 141, 81 per 1/2 

 hour's haul and most of the hauls within the 200-meter curve gave more than 18 speci- 

 mens per Va hour's haul. In June no investigations were made at the Fseroes, but we 

 were again there in July, August and September. Already in July the pelagic fry of the 

 coalfish were no longer to be found, but large quantities of the early bottom stages could 



1 This appears from some hauls made with the eel hand-seine on .July 31st 1905 at Husavik in 

 Skialfandi Bay halfway along the north coast, where a very large number of coalfish fry of the 0-group 

 were taken. In 3 hauls from 4 meters to the shore 360 specimens were caught. 



Gr. virens , ' 



cm. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 



No. 4 5 3 9 22 87 107 60 33 18 9 3 

 - That the few coalfish fry of the -group occurring on the east coast arrive there earlier than the 

 cod fry, is shown amongst other things by 3 hauls with the eel seine in Vopna Fjord (N. E. coast) on 

 July 29th 1905; these gave 2 coalfish of the 0-group (6'(2, 7 cm.), but no cod fry of the 0-group (though 

 167 of the I-groiip, length : 9—16 cm.}. 



