— 48 — 



of the sea-bottom is here so steep that the distance to the 200- meter level is not even 

 20 miles. This exception therefore only proves the rule, that the pelagic young of Gadus 

 pollachius only occur within the 100-meter line, and this agrees well also with the fact, 

 that the young bottom stages are to be found right into the littoral region in quite shal- 

 low water along with the corresponding stages of the cod and coalfish. Already at a 

 length of scarcely 2 cm., the young pollack may appear in the tidal region, and of the 

 three species: cod, coalfish and pollack, the last seems to be the one which gives up the 

 pelagic life at the smallest size, as it is only seldom that one finds in the tidal zone 

 young coalfish or cod of less than 2^'2— 3 cm. 



On the basis of these investigations we may conclude, that Gadus pollachius passes 

 through the whole of its development from pelagic egg to the young bot- 

 tom stage in shallow water within the 200-meter and even as a rule 

 within or near the 100-meter line. 



It holds good for Gadus pollachius as for most of the species of this genus, that the 

 smallest pelagic young occur nearest the surface, those a little older somewhat deeper down. 

 Consideration of the tables showing the hauls with the young-fish trawl shows further that 

 this species keeps perhaps in a special degree to the neighbourhood of the surface, as it 

 was generally the hauls with least line out which gave the most specimens. Most of our 

 pelagic pollack were thus taken quite close to the surface, with only 10 meters line out 

 (see e.g. St. 24—31, 1906). 



§ 3. The geographical distribution 



1. Iceland 

 Iceland requires no discussion, as in spite of our hundreds of hauls with the young- 

 fish trawl and other apparatus, we have never taken either pelagic fry, young bottom 

 stages or older fishes. Gadus pollachius is also not known at Iceland. 



2. The Faeroes 

 The pelagic fry of the pollack have not been taken at the Fœroes, although, as can 

 be seen from the Chart and tables, we made numerous hauls there in May, July, August 

 and September. In our hauls with the eel seine in quite shallow water, by means of 

 which thousands of young coalfish and cod were obtained, only 3 young pollack in all 

 were taken, namely, on May 17th and 18th 1904 in Vaag Fjord in the most southerly of 

 the islands. They were taken in the eel hand-seine in water from 4 — meters (temp. 7'06°). 

 They all belonged to the young of the previous year, 11, 13 and 15 cm. in length, and 

 were taken along with several hundreds of coalfish and cod of the same year. Although 

 it seems from this that Gadus pollachius spawns at the Faeroes, yet it is evident from 

 our investigations that this occurs only on a very small scale, and there can be no doubt 

 also that the pollack is on the whole rare here, where we are obviously at the northern 

 limit for this fish in the Atlantic. 



3. British Isles 

 As 1 have not been able to identify the eggs of the pollack in our samples, I can 

 say nothing directly regarding the time of spawning. Mc Intosh and Masterman (1897, 



