- 56 - 



see further from Chart III, that the greatest number of pelagic young haddock oc- 

 curred in the most northerly parts of the North Sea, where the numbers mount up as 

 high as 389 specimens per half hour's haul in the beginning of May; but even in the 

 central parts of the North Sea considerable quantities were taken, thus 150 specimens per 

 half hour's haul at St. 14, April 22nd, 1906 (55° 55' N., 5° 54' E., depth: 46 meters). On 

 the other hand, as already mentioned, we have not taken a single haddock egg or young 

 in the shallowest, south-easterly and southerly parts of the North Sea on our lines from 

 Esbjerg to the Channel, in spite of the fact that the period of the year was very favour- 

 able (end of April), and 1 can only conclude therefore that the haddock does not spawn 

 there or if so only very little, a fact for the rest already for a long time pointed out from 

 the German and Dutch side. 



Concerning the reason of this distribution of the haddock eggs and tiny pelagic fry 

 in the North Sea there can be no doubt; the most southerly and south-easterly parts of 

 these waters are everywhere too shallow to permit of the haddock spawning, and though we 

 once took a few haddock eggs in so shallow water as 17 meters (St. 6. April 29th, 1905, 

 54° 28' N., 1°58'E., Dogger Bank), this is clearly an exception. Another contributory 

 cause to the absence of haddock eggs in the south-eastern parts of the North Sea, is 

 probably this that the bottom temperatures there are so low in spring when the haddock 

 spawns. For example we found at our stations there in April 1905 and 1906 that the 

 bottom temperature was only 4° — 5°. 



5. The Channel 



On our voyage at the end of April 1906 from Esbjerg to Plymouth all the conditions 

 were favourable for the discovery of the pelagic young of the haddock, at least so far as 

 the weather and time of year were concerned. In spite of the numerous successful hauls 

 made in the Channel, not a single egg of the haddock was taken; nor were any pelagic 

 fry found in June 1905 when we had a line through these waters. And if we study|the 

 list given by Holt and Scott (1. c.) of the pelagic eggs and fish-young taken in the 

 neighbourhood of Plymouth, we find that this species does not occur amongst them, nor 

 is it described by Holt (Reprod. Teleost. Fishes, South-Western District, Journ. Mar. Biol. 

 Assoc. N. S. vol. V, 1897—99, p. 138), this author stating expressly of the haddock that it 

 is "decidedly exceptional". Some rich pelagic hauls taken with the young-fish trawl in 

 the neighbourhood of Plymouth and kindly sent me by Dr. E. J. Allen point in the same 

 direction. They contain well over 1000 pelagic young gadoids of the same species as the 

 "Thor" has taken in the Channel, but only a single specimen of the haddock. This which 

 has a length of scarcely l^/s cm. and which was taken in a haul in Cawsand Bay at 

 Plymouth on May 13th, 1907, depth 3^4 fathoms, is the exception which proves the 

 rule, and it is indeed not excluded that it may have been carried from the waters south 

 of Ireland, where the haddock really spawns. 



From the available data we may conclude that the haddock young are only very 

 exceptionally produced in the Channel. 



6. Bay of Biscay 

 Our investigations in the Bay of Biscay were made in the beginning of May 1906 

 (also in June 1905) and were therefore at a favourable time of year for the finding of the 



