— 73 — JÜHS. S(!HMIDT 



numerous pelagic fry of Gadus Esmarki there in the beginning of May (1905), the Gadus 

 minutus fry were not yet present. On the other hand the small fry of the latter were 

 taken on July 15th (1905) off the Moray Firth at St. 115, and they can scarcely have 

 been spawned before the beginning of June or the end of May. And that the spawning in 

 these waters may even be later than June, as stated by Mc Intosh and Masterman, appears 

 from our catch of 2 pelagic fry, one of which was only a little over, the other a little 

 under 1 cm., at St. 290, 1904, in the mouth of the Moray Firth (58° OS' N., 2° 24' W.) so 

 late as in the beginning of September; these can hardly have been spawned before the 

 beginning of August. 



Our investigations on the west coast of Scotland (in the end of May and in 

 June) show that the pelagic fry of Gadus minutus were already present in very consider- 

 able quantities in the last days of May (1905). The majority of these specimens were 

 small, ca. 1 cm., or most frequently less; but their discovery shows that the spawning here 

 must begin relatively early, at least already in April. At the end of June (1906) most 

 of the specimens from the west and north coasts of Scotland were about 2 cm. long. 



As can be seen from Chart V, the pelagic fry of G. minutus occur in very con- 

 siderable quantities on the Atlantic coasts of Scotland, though throughout in smaller 

 numbers than G. Esmarki. They were taken in all the hauls near the shore, and 

 further on the Eockall shallow and the greatest numbers per half hour's haul were 33, 

 21 and 69. 



With regard to Ireland, Holt (Survey of Fishing Grounds, West Coast of Ireland 

 p. 398) states that "a ripe female occurred on the 8th April at 38 fathoms off Gregory 

 Sound. The pelagic eggs, which exactly resemble those of the whiting in their earlier 

 stages, were not recognized (with certainty) in the tow-net collections but perhaps occurred 

 in April". There is thus no very certain information regarding the spawning time here of 

 G. minutus, but our results agree very well with what is known. In the last days of May 

 1906 (St. 59) our pelagic hauls with the young-fish trawl in the mouth of Dingle Bay 

 (Co. Kerry, S. W. Ireland) yielded numerous fry of the poor cod, most of which had a length 

 of scarcely 1 cm., whilst none were longer than P/2 cm. The majority of these must 

 probably have been spawned in April, certainly not much earlier (some of the larger 

 perhaps in March). 



Our investigations on the west coast of Ireland show further, that the pelagic fry of 

 G. minutus occur in large numbers, e. g. 123, 106, 44, 42, 30, 29 etc. per half hour's haul 

 at practically all our stations near the coast, the numbers constantly exceeding those of 

 G. Esmarki. Examination of the contents of some pelagic hauls kindly sent me by Mr. E. 

 W. L. Holt shoAvs further, that the pelagic fry of G. minutus occur everywhere on the 

 coasts of Ireland. 



The main results may be summarised as follows. Gadus minutus spawns in quan- 

 tities at Ireland, probably in greater numbers than further to the north on the west coast 

 of Scotland, in which regard it is the opposite to G. Esmarki, though this is in good 

 agreement with the fact that it is distinctly a southern form , whose fry are found in 

 greatest abundance in the western part of the Channel, whilst G. Esmarki is distinctly a 

 northern form whose pelagic fry were not at all found in the Channel but in greatest 

 numbers at Iceland. 



10 



