— 59 — JOHS. SCHMIDT 



spawning was lound lu ocfiir alüiig the wliolc of the soiiUi coast., at least from E. of 

 Ingolfshöföi to the westward and also on tlio west coast (in Faxe Bay). At Ingolfshöföi 

 (the east part of th(! south coast) at the end of May 1903, 1904 and 1905 hauls with 

 the trawl in depths from ca. 35 to ca. 60 meters gave in each of the years spawning 

 whiting, and undoubted whiting eggs were found at the surface. The bottom temperature 

 was tiiere ca. 0-80° (compare fig. (i, General Part). 



None of the mature females taifen were spent, but the majority had running spawn, 

 so that they were undoubtedly in the middle of the spawning time or perhaps even a 

 little before this. None of the mature females were less than 31 cm. and some were even 

 over GO cm. (e. g. 67 and 68 cm.), thus quite surprisingly large in comparison with what 

 one is accustomed to in more southerly waters. 



At other places on the south coast I have found whiting with running spawn even 

 as late as the middle of July, so that the spawning time is relatively late, considerably 

 later than for example tor the coalfish and the cod. 



The pelagic whiting young were not found at Iceland before the middle of June and 

 even then only extremely few and quite exceptionally. At the end of June some more 

 were taken, but they did not occur in any great quantities before July. In the middle of 

 this month the majority on the south coast had a length of ca.Vh cm. 



Consideration of Chart IV shows that it was in the main only on the western part of 

 the south coast, round about the Westman Isles and westwards, that the pelagic whiting 

 fry were taken in any great numbers. Thus, on the west coast only very small numbers 

 were taken in comparison with the other Gadus species, and on the north coast only one 

 or two specimens in all have been taken in the three years, on the east coast none at all. 

 There is therefore nothing to show, that any large quantities of the whiting fry are 

 involved in the great passive circulation of the waters round the island in June, July and 

 August, which we have seen to have such an influence on the distribution of the had- 

 dock and cod. During the second voyage round the island in the middle of June 1904 

 (see e. g. Chart IX, 2), the whiting fry off the west coast had for example not reached 

 further than to off Patrix Fjord (St. 158) and even there they were only in small quan- 

 tities. During the third voyage in July, the whiting were not found at all on the east 

 coast or the easterly part of the north coast (see Chart IX, 3), and on the fourth voyage 

 (see Chart IX, 4) in the latter half of August we investigated along the whole east coast 

 and further westwards along the north coast before we found a single specimen of the 

 whiting fry (length 43 mm.)i at Stat. 269 at Cape North. These results indicate therefore 

 that the quantities of pelagic whiting fry which are carried round, to the north and east 

 coasts are not great. It seems from our investigations further that only a few older whiting 

 are to be found on these coasts, quite inappreciably few in fact in comparison with the 

 quantities of haddock, cod and coalfish which may occur there. 



Taken on the whole the whiting is not so important at Iceland, even on the south and 

 south west coasts where it occurs regularly in most hauls with the trawl in moderate depths, 

 as in more southern waters (e. g. North Sea), and in numbers is much inferior to the cod, 

 haddock, coalfish and Gadus Esmarki. This is apparent at once even on a rapid survey 

 of my journals recording our hauls with the trawl, eel seine, lines etc., but it is also 



1 On sailing further southwards along the west coast a few large, pelagic fry of the whiting were 

 found (ca. 5 cm. in length), but very few on the whole, as appears from the tables. 



