— 220 — 



those obtained in 1908. Referring for the rest to the tables for June and July 1908, I 

 shall here merely mention that in every respect we found in the main the same distribution 

 of the gadoid fry near Iceland's coasts as in former years and thus also the same drift of 

 the pelagic fry of the cod and the haddock round the island as described in the preceding 

 work for the years 1903—06 (see pp. 20 — 23 and pp. 53 — 54 and the Charts of distribution 

 IX and X). — I may here enter a little further into the details of the distribution of the 

 fry W. of Scotland and on Rockall Bank, which was subjected to investigation during the 

 end of May and in several respects is of considerable interest because the results obtained 

 are in many ways supplementary to our previous investigations in neighbouring waters. 



On the investigations of the "Thor" in May 1908 W. of Scotland and near 



Rockall Bank. 



1. Cod (Gadus callarias). 



Eggs as well as pelagic fry were found in quantities N. of Scotland and in the straits 

 between Scotland and the Hebrides; and at station 10 which lies W. of these isles no less 

 than 122 specimens of pelagic fry were obtained in a haul of ^h hour. We now turned 

 westward towards Rockall Bank, and at all the stations in the deep Rockall Channel cod 

 fry (and cod eggs) Avere completely lacking, as will be seen from Chart I. But as soon 

 as we reached Rockall Bank and came inside the 200 m. curve, cod eggs and fry were 

 found at all the stations but were again lacking in our hauls when we had left the Bank 

 on our way to Iceland. The investigation on and round Rockall Bank thus shows that 

 the cod spawns in quantities here and gives us, as distinctly seen from the chart, a certain 

 proof of the fact that the spawning is influenced by the depth. (At all the stations in- 

 side the 200 m. curve young cod fry and eggs were found while none of the stations out- 

 side this curve of soundings contained the faintest indication of fry or eggs of this fish). 

 It is however not only the influence of the depth on the propagation of the cod which is 

 illustrated by these investigations. They also contain information on the temperature and 

 the salinity, as seen by the following tables from the stations 10 and 11 lying W. of the 

 Hebrides inside the 200 m. curve, the first at a depth of 100 m. the second ca. 40 miles 

 W. from it at a depth of 140 m. 



Temperature and salinity at these stations were as follows: 



In spite of the short distance between the two stations practically lying in the same 

 latitude we see that salinity as well as temperature are very different. We find the eggs 

 as well as pelagic fry of the cod in quantities (122 specimens of fry per Vs hour's haul) 



