— 49 — JOflS. SCHMIDT 



I.e. p. 271) have examined eggs from Shetland taken on May 2nd. The pelagic young were 

 not found by us on tlie east coast of Scotland in the beginning of May, but we have taken 

 them on the west and north coasts at the end of May (e. g. St. 7 — 11, 1908), when a large 

 number (e. g. 148 and 3(3 per '/j hour's haul) of quite small specimens (length less than 

 1 cm.) were obtained round the Hebrides. This shows that the pollack must spawn in 

 large quantities on the west coast of Scotland, and the small size of the specimens taken 

 also indicates that the majority were spawned at the end of April or beginning of May. At 

 the end of June (St. 94, 190G) we took the pelagic young (length ca. 2 cm.) in somewhat less 

 numbers (Ü specimens per "i hoar's haul). It appears from our hauls with the eel band-seine 

 at Stornoway on June 5th 1905 (see p. .30) , as if the bottom stages of Gadus poUachins 

 had not yet arrived there although those of the coalfish and the cod were present. Mc 

 Intosh and Masterman (1897, 1. c, p. 272) state with regard to the time of appearance of 

 the bottom stages at Scotland that "the young forms from about an inch to nearly P/i 

 inches (i. e. 25 — 45 mm.) are abundant amidst the shoals of cod and green cod off the 

 rocks on various parts of the coast in July". 



As regards Ireland, we took the pelagic young of ca. 1 cm. long in somewhat con- 

 siderable quantities (up to 20 per 1 hour's haul) off Co. Kerry in the latter half of May. 

 From our list showing the results of the shore -hauls with the eel seine in Valentia 

 Harbour (p. 31), it will be seen that even at the end of May but few young bottom stages 

 were yet found (length still only ca. 2 cm.) , whereas there were considerably more in the 

 middle of June (up to 40 per haul, most being ca. 4 cm. long). Our results seem to agree 

 very well with those of Holt (Survey of Pishing Grounds, W. Coast of Ireland), according 

 to which the pollack probably spawns in the period from March to June and especially in 

 April on the west coast of Ireland (1. c. p. 400), since the pelagic pollack fry of'ca. 1 cm. 

 we took towards the end of May were most probably spawned in April. 



Altogether Holt's investigations and ours on the west coast of Ireland show that 

 Gadus follachius spawns here in considerable numbers, as also that the spawning only 

 takes place on the whole at a later period of the year than the spawning of the cod and 

 especially of the coalfish, probably in the main in April. 



4. North Sea (and Skager Rak)i 

 As can be seen from Chart II we have here taken only a small number of the 

 pelagic young of Gadus pollachius, and it should be noticed, they were all taken late in 

 the season, namely, in July and the last days of June, although they were all quite young 

 specimens less than 1 cm. in length. It appears from these results that the pollack re- 

 produces over the greater part of the North Sea and Skager Rak, but apparently not in 

 large quantities, as also that the spawning seems to be late (in May and June probably), 

 somewhat later it seems than in the Channel and on the Atlantic coasts of Great Britain. 

 The fact that, on a line from Esbjerg to the Channel (with numerous, ca. 30, stations), 



' "With regard to the Chart it should be said, that most of our numerous stations in the North Sea 

 and Skager Eak after July 1st are not shown, only the few which gave positive results being included. 

 In the Skager Eak two of the three stations where pelagic fry of the pollack were taken, were invest- 

 igated at the end of June and beginning of .July 1907. At that time the "Thor" had a very large 

 number of stations (ca. 35) spread over the Skager Rak, but only two small specimens in all were taken, 

 from which we may well conclude that Gadus pollachius spawns but little in the Skager Rak. On ac- 

 count of the 1907 investigations the Skager Rak has been more thoroughly explored than the North Sea. 

 In the Kattegat the pelagic young fry of the pollack have not been taken. 



7 



