550 ME. B. w. L. HOLT ON THE [June 21, 



5. Coutributious to our Knowledge of the Plankton of the 

 Faeroe Channel. — No. V.* Report on a Collection of 

 very young Fishes obtained by Dr. G, H. Fowler in 

 the Faeroe Channel. By Ernest W. L. Holt. 



[Received June 18, 1898.] 

 (Plates XLVI. & XL VII.) 



My friend Dr. G. H. Fowler has asked me to name, if possible, 

 the fishes taken in his vertical self-closing tow-net in the Faeroe 

 Channel. My task is rendered the easier by the fact that the greater 

 number of them prove to belong to one species. Individuallj'- some 

 of the stages represented could hardly be definitely identified, even 

 generically, but the series is practically complete and has enabled 

 me to add considerably, as I venture to suppose, to our knowledge 

 of the developmental phases of deep-sea forms. Incidentally the 

 species in question, ScopeJus glacialis, is definitely added to the 

 British fauna, though that is a matter of no great importance. In 

 the case of a pelagic egg and some early larvas of very elongate 

 form, I have only been able to point out the possible affinities. 

 Two other larvae, those of Sehastes norvegiciis and Gadus ceglefinus, 

 have already received attention at the hands of other observers, 

 but the collection furnishes a stage of G. ceglefinus that has not 

 hitherto been adequately described. The importance of a really 

 efficient self-closing net, even from the point of view of the mere 

 ichthyologist, can hardly be overrated. 



Sebastes wobteqicus Ascan. Norway Haddock. 



Sehastes marinus, CoUett, Norw. J^. Atlant. Exped., Fish. 1880, 

 p. 15, pi. i. figs. 3, 4. 



Collett refers to this species a number of larvae or fry which 

 were taken at the surface " in mid-ocean, some nearly 400 kilom. 

 from land," off Bearen Island aud Spitzbergen. His examples 

 measured from 9"0 to 19 mm., and two, illustrating the extreme 

 terms of the series, are figured. In the brief description appended 

 the character of the interorbital space and other obvious points of 

 distinction from Scorpama dactyloptcra are not mentioned ; but we 

 are not entitled to suppose that so careful an observer would have 

 overlooked the possibility of confusion between the two forms. 



Dr. Fowler's specimen, 12-5 mm. in length (inclusive), corresponds 

 so closely to Collett's figures (allowing for the diffei-ence in 

 dimensions) that it is unnecessary to illustrate it. It appears to 

 be nearly identical iu developinent with a North Atlantic specimen 

 of 12 mm., but the bony ridge of the nape terminates in a single 

 instead of in a double spine. The interorbital space is, in 

 the Faeroe Channel larva, very wide and fiat, a character in which 



' For Part I. see P. Z. S. 1896, p. 991 ; Part II., 1897, p. 523 ; Part III., 1897, 

 p. 803; Part IV., antea, p. .540. 



