— 133 — JOBS. SCHMIDT 



We see from this that the Channel is extremely different from the North Sea, where 

 for example the cod ((?. callarias), haddock (G. œglefinus), coalfish (6f. virens) and Norway 

 pout {G. Exmarki) spawn in quantities, and the same applies though naturally to a smaller 

 extent as regards the Atlantic coasts of the British Isles. In regard to the production of 

 gadoid fry the Channel with exception of the shallow eastern part seems to resemble most 

 the neighbouring parts of the Bay of Biscay, as the same species spawns in both regions 

 whilst on the other hand the species which do not reproduce or reproduce but little in 

 the Bay of Biscay are in a similar condition in the Channel. 



6. Bay of Biscay 



As can be seen from any of the Charts of distribution the depths in the Bay of 

 Biscay are very diverse. The largest surface with depths under 200 meters is found oif 

 the more northern parts of the French coast, but it narrows quickly S. of 45° N. L. , so 

 that there is a steep fall of the sea-bottom from the coasts towards the oceanic depths, 

 steeper in fact than anywhere else in Northern and Western Europe. Thus already at 10 

 — 20 miles from the Spanish north coast in a northerly direction we find depths of over 

 1000 meters, and immediately out from this the 2000, 3000 and 4000 meter curves run 

 close to one another, so that we find depths between 4000 and 5000 meters over a large 

 part of the Bay, and they even surpass 5000 on a small area about 45° N. and 5° W. Thus 

 none of our gadoids are excluded from the Bay of Biscay on account of the depths being 

 too small or too great. 



I may remark that the conditions regarding the spawning of the gadoids mentioned 

 in this paper refer to the waters off the French coast and the most eastern part of the 

 Spanish north coast. The latter is spoken of here as the most southern part of the Bay 

 of Biscay. 



Our information regarding the hydrographical conditions in the Bay of Biscay is much 

 less than for the other waters within the regions investigated. Thus so far as I know no 

 temperature observations from coastal stations are available for the French west coast or 

 the Spanish north coast, from which the monthly averages might be calculated, as could 

 be done for Iceland, the Faeroes and the British Isles (p. 115). The available material 

 consists of (1) surface temperature curves for Feb., May, Aug. and Nov. from various 

 charts, e. g. the English Admiralty chart No. 2930 (3529) : "chart showing surface temp- 

 eratures of the Atlantic Indian and Pacific Oceans, compiled from charts published by the 

 Meteorological Office, 1884", and the Deutsche Seewarte chart "Atlantischer Ozean, Taf. 5 

 —8, 1902"; (2) the English quarterly observations made at St. E4 off Brittany in Feb., 

 May, Aug. and Nov. from the surface to the bottom, which are published in the inter- 

 national Bulletins ; in contrast to the data under (1) these have the great advantage that 

 they are not only for the surface but also for the bottom, but on the other hand they 

 refer only to the extreme northern part of the Bay; (3) the surface and bottom observa- 

 tions made from the "Thor" in the first half of May 1906 by Cand. mag. I. N. Nielsen, both 

 in the northern and the southern parts of the Bay. 



Information regarding the approximate surface temperatures at different times of the 

 year and at different places in the Bay is given in the following table. 



