— 95 — JOHS. SCHMIDT 



§ 3. The geographical distribution 



1. Iceland and 2. The Faeroes 

 In spite of our numerous stations in these waters wo have nowhere found either the 

 young or the older stages of the hake. Nor is it known from here through other invest- 

 igations. 



3. British Isles 



With a single exception all the pelagic young hake we have taken on the west and 

 north of Scotland as also off the Moray Firth were found at the end of August or 

 beginning of September. As we found the small fry of the hake at all the stations 

 we had on the return journey from Iceland (1904, 1905) at this season of the year 

 but not in the many successful and very rich hauls in the same waters in May, June and 

 July, this seems to me to show clearly that the hake only spawns here in the 

 summer, thus later than any other gadoid whose biology has been studied in this work, 

 with the exception of Baniceps raninus. 



The specimens found in the beginning of September (1904 and 1905) were in part 

 small, less than 1 cm., in part between 1 and IVs cm., only two being about 2 cm. long, 

 so that we may reasonably conclude that the majority were not spawned earlier than in 

 July, especially as the growth in these warm summer months is certainly rapid ^ Al- 

 though only ca. 40 specimens in all were taken (which however it should be remarked were 

 distributed over all our 5 stations round the north of Scotland in 1904 and 1905), it 

 cannot be concluded therefrom that the hake spawns but little there; the explanation may 

 just as well be that, as I did not know the hake fry at that time, the hauls were not 

 made with any plan (in regard to depth under the surface, depth at the stations etc.). 



It only remains to describe the discovery of a single, quite small specimen on June 

 11th 1905 at St. 76 W. of the southern part of Scotland. To judge from the size, this 

 had probably been spawned in May, and this shows that at least a few hake may spawn 

 earlier in the year. 



With regard to Ireland , at least S. W. of Ireland, we found the hake fry first in 

 June at several (7) stations, which shows that the hake spawns there in spring or 

 beginning of summe r^ Further, 1 have obtained from Mr. E. W. L. Holt, Dublin, 

 several samples taken on the coasts of Ireland in the autumn, September, October and 

 November, which contain the small fry of the hake (see list over the Irish hauls), and 

 this shows that the hake at Ireland also spawns or perhaps mainly spawns in the s u m- 

 merorbeginningofautumn. 



Altogether, the available data show that the young of the hake are produced 

 on all the Atlantic coasts of the British Isles, and that the spawning 

 takes place over a great part of the year, namely, at least from spring to 

 autumn. It seems however, that the spawning in the north, at North Scotland, is chiefly 



' That the hake only spawns late in summer agrees well with the fact, that in some hauls with the 

 trawl in the Minch in June 1906 I only took unripe specimens, none with running spawn. 



^ Holt (Survey, 1. c. p. 401) states: "it appears that spawning is protracted from the end of March, if 

 not earlier, until July", but only late in June has he seen a ripe female. Heedman (according to Mo 

 Intosh and Masteeman, 1. c, p. 274, note) found spawning hake on April 5th south of the Calf of Man. 



