- 114 — 



In the northern part of the North Sea we found the eggs in rather considerable 

 numbers in May 1903 and 1905, but 1 need not enter further into the conditions here as 

 they will certainly be dealt with in great detail from other side. 



5. The Channel 

 We have never seen any trace of the pelagic eggs or fry of the torsk here at any 

 time of year, and neither the young nor the older fishes are mentioned in the literature. 

 To judge from the conditions elsewhere it may be considered, on the one hand, that the 

 depths in the greater parts of the Channel are insufficient, on the other hand, that the 

 temperatures are too high to permit of the torsk living and spawning here. 



6. Bay of Biscay 

 At none of our stations in the Bay, neither in deep water nor in shallow (in May, 

 June and September 1906) did we find any trace of the eggs or fry of the torsk, nor are 

 the older fishes known from here. In any case we should not expect that the torsk would 

 spawn here where the temperatures are so high, especially as this does not anywhere take 

 place in the Channel or ofl' the southern parts of Ireland. 



III. GENERAL PART 



In this section a brief summary will be given of some of the principal matters dealt 

 with in this work. First of all the various waters within the region investigated are 

 described, with a short characterization of the hydrographical conditions which are of 

 importance for our purpose and an account of the gadoid species which are prominent in 

 the different waters. In this part the coastal waters (within the 200-meter line) are 

 distinguished from the deep waters. 



Then follows a brief summary of the various species, their spawning regions and 

 the outer conditions (depth, temperature, salinity) which determine these, with some biol- 

 ogical conclusions; next, an account is given of some examples of the drift of the 

 pelagic gadoid fry where such occurs on a large scale within our region, and lastly, 

 a brief comparison is drawn between the Atlantic and neighbouring waters with regard to 

 the occurrence and spawning of our gadoids. 



A. The waters investigated 



a. The coastal waters 

 Before discussing the separate waters within our region in detail, I give here the 

 average monthly temperatures at the surface from observations made at different 

 stations on the Atlantic coasts of Iceland, Fseroes and the British Isles. These afford 

 a rather good representation in general of the conditions as to temperature which are of 

 interest for us here, that is, the temperatures under which the spawning of the gadoids 

 takes place. As most of the gadoids spawn in spring and there is at that season in 



