- 108 — 



1. Iceland; 2. Faeroes; 4. North Sea; 5. The Channel 

 From what has been said under § 2, concerning the conditions as to temperature and 

 depth under which the pelagic fry of M. elongata occur, it is evident beforehand that this 

 Mediterranean species could not reproduce at Iceland, the Faeroes, in the North Sea or the 

 Channel. For this either the temperature is too low or the depths too small, and in ac- 

 cordance with this we have not found the least trace either of the fry or the older fish, 

 nor is there any mention in the literature of the occurrence of this species in the waters 

 named. 



3. British Isles 



In the literature there is no other mention of the occurrence of this fish in the waters 

 near the British Isles than the statement cited above (p. 107) by Holt and Byrne for the 

 waters S. W. of Ireland. 



Off Scotland and the northern part of Ireland the pelagic fry were not taken by us, 

 but S. W. of Ireland or in other words , south of the large bank which extends out 

 from the west of Ireland into the Atlantic, we found the pelagic fry of M. elongata at not 

 a few stations (ca. 8 — 10) beyond the 1000-meter line. The numbers taken were never 

 large, not more than 1 — 2 specimens in a haul, which may be ascribed in part to the 

 time of year at which we found the fry, namely May and June, being too far advanced, 

 in part to our being here, S. W. of Ireland, at the northern limit for the distribution of 

 this species, which so far as known has the main centre of its occurrence further south in 

 the Mediterranean. 



From the investigations we can conclude that Molva elongata spawns beyond or 

 near to the 1000-meter line S.W. of Ireland (S. of the large Irish Outer Bank), 

 where its northern limit seems to be. To judge from the size of the pelagicfry in May- 

 June, the spawning must take place early in the spring or already in winter, just as seems 

 to be the case in the Mediterranean to judge from a specimen of 35 mm. in length 

 taken at Messina in ApriP. 



6. Bay of Biscay 



We have only once taken the pelagic fry of this species in the Bay, in the most 

 southern part (St. 37, 1906) between the 1000- and 2000-meter lines, but this find to- 

 gether with those in the waters S. W. of Ireland and off the Channel (see Chart VII) leave 

 no doubt that Molva elongata reproduces everywhere in the Bay at suitable 

 depths. As the species is common in the Mediterranean, where its pelagic fry are also 

 known i, there is no doubt that it also occurs and reproduces further south in the Atlantic 

 than we have found it, for example off the coasts of Portugal. 



MoREATj (1. c.) does not state it as occurring on the west coast of France, though it is 

 described and figured by him as occurring on the Mediterranean coast of France, but ac- 

 cording to Cligny (Annales de la Station Aquicole, Boulogne-sur-Mer, N. S., vol. I, 1905, 

 p. 24) it has been taken once off l'île d'Yen by Koehler, and several specimens are re- 

 corded by Clignt (1. c.) as found in rather deep water off La Coruaa (N. W. Spain) by 

 French trawlers. Cligny regards this species as a variety of the blue ling and states it as 

 ^' Molva byrkelange elongata (Eiss.) Cligny". 



^ Described and figured by Mo Intosh, but wrongly referred by him to Phycis, as I have already 

 shown on an earlier occasion (On the postlarval development of some North Atlantic Gadoids, 1907, 

 Postscript, p. 13). 



