83 



JOHS. SCHMIDT 



which (I'roiii the Skager Kak) were examined by my colleague ür. A. C. Johansen, who has 

 kindly placed his results at my disposal. 



Number of vertebra; in adult Gadus Poutassou 

 No. of vertebra) Skager Kale luolaiiil Total 



23 + 34 2 .. 2 



24 + 32 8 .. 8 



24 + 33 7 2 9 



24 + 34 6 .. 6 



24 + 35 1 .. 1 



25 + 31 3 .. 3 



25 + 32 7 .. 7 



25 + 33 12 .. 12 



25 + 34 2 .. 2 



25+35 1 .. 1 



26 + 32 1 .. 1 



Summary 



No. of vertebr» No. of specimens 



56 11 



57 18 



58 19 



59 3 



60 1 



§ 2. General features of the occurrence 



Chart IV applies to the months of April, May, June and the first half of July, 

 and for the North Sea also for the latter half of July. It represents only the pelagic fry. 

 A simple green dot (•) represents the early stages under 5 cm., whilst the sign $ stands 

 for the older (5 — 9 cm.). The negative stations after July 15th are not included, but the 

 few which gave positive results are represented by a special sign.. 



A glance at Chart IV, where the pelagic fry of the whiting are also represented, 

 show's at once that the conditions with regard to the depths over which the postlarval fry 

 of Gadus Poutassou occur, are quite different from those under which the other species 

 of gadoids hitherto discussed are found. By far the most of the early stages were taken 

 beyond or in the neighbourhood of the 1000-meter line. If the small fry were 

 taken within this line it was always at places where there was but a short distance from 

 it, and within the 200-meter line no small specimens (less than 5 cm.) occurred anywhere 

 excepting a few which were taken in the Minch. From this we can only conclude that 

 Gadus Poutassou spawns at those places in the Atlantic, which lie beyond 

 or in the neighbourhood of the 1000-meter line. In this way considerable areas 

 of the regions investigated by us are excluded as spawning places of Gadus poutassou^. 



' On the other hand, the older (5—8 cm. long) stages were not rarely found within the 1000-meter 

 line, even within the 200-meter line, at South Iceland, the Faeroes and in the Bay of Biscay, as can be 

 seeu from the Chart of distribution. This is however quite comprehensible when we remember (1) that 



11* 



