- 68 — 



Esmarlci one must especially be named; it was taken on the south coast on April 26th 

 1906 (St. S. B. 315, 5r56'N., 6° 45' W., depth SSVs fathoms) and contains ca. 5 specimens 

 (]/2 — 1 cm. long). These show that spawning must also take place earlier than April, 

 probably also in March and February. In the Irish Sea also the Irish investigations have 

 taken the pelagic fry of Gadus Esmarki both in the middle of May and beginning of 

 June, as the examination of the Irish samples shows. 



It appears therefore from these investigations that Gadus Esmarki reproduces every- 

 where at Ireland, although seemingly not on so large a scale as farther north on the coasts 



of Scotland. 



4. North Sea (and Skager Rak) 



Our investigations in the North Sea were made in April and beginning of May and 

 also in July, in the Skager Kak further at the end of June and beginning of July. They 

 show (see Chart V) that the pelagic fry of Gadus Esmarki occur in April and beginning 

 of May in extraordinarily great quantities in the northern parts of the North Sea, where 

 on a line from the Moray Firth to Bergen the numbers reached as high as 740, 389, 200, 

 182 etc., and the fry were not absent at a single station. 



Further to the south in the North Sea the fry became scarcer, but were still found 

 at least as far to the south as 54^2° N. L. On the other hand they were quite wanting 

 in all our hauls in the south-eastern and the most southerly parts of the North Sea, thus 

 at all stations on the line from Esbjerg to the Channel. The pelagic fry of Gadus Es- 

 marki were found in the Skager Kak, but in far less quantities than in the northern and 

 north-western parts of the North Sea. 



I myself have only taken there, in April, at most 10 specimens per half hour, but as 

 I only had one station at this season, I attach more weight to the contents of numerous 

 hauls made in the Skager Kak with the young-fish trawl which I have been able to 

 examine. They were made in March and April from the "Thor" by my colleague. Dr. A. 

 C. JoHANSKN. From these hauls it appears that the fry of Gadus Esmarki were found from 

 the beginning of April, though not in large numbers, generally only 1 — 15 specimens per 

 haul of one half to two hours. 



In June 1907 I myself made a thorough investigation of the pelagic fish young oc- 

 curring in the Skager Kak, but only very few of Gadus Esmarki were taken. 



The specimens found in the North Sea in April and beginning of May were all ca. 1 cm. 

 in length, but several were smaller and some on the other hand somewhat larger ca. P/s 

 — 2 cm. It appears from this undoubtedly that Gadus Esmarki spawns in the North Sea 

 at the end of winter or early in the spring. 



In July (1905 and 1906) we made several cruises over the North Sea in the northern, 

 central and southern parts (see Chart V). The fry of Gadus Esmarki were found every- 

 where at the same places as in the spring, but in much smaller quantities, and almost 

 all the pelagic specimens now found were larger, in general ca. 2 — 3 cm. That many fewer 

 fry were now found is naturally due to the fact that the majority have already ceased to 

 live pelagically, as can be directly shown also from the occurrence of the bottom stages. 

 In July the small pelagic fry of Gadus minutus were however found. The latter were 

 absent in the spring when we found such large quantities of the small G. Esmarki fry. 



The results of our investigations may be summarised as follows. Gadus Esmarki 

 spawns over the greater part of the North Sea and the Skager Rak with 



