﻿believe in this and to show how well it agrees with the phenomena which 

 otherwise will be brought to light to explain this matter. 



When the 3-group of plaice and Pleur. limanda is so scarce in the Catte- 

 gat, compared partly to the Icelandic fjords with respect to the former, partly 

 to our enclosed-seas, I think the reason is that it has oeen fished up, the plaice 

 on purpose, in order to sell it, Pleur. limanda chiefly unintentionally as this 

 fish is of very little consequence as a commodity. As Pleur. limanda, however, 

 is rather a delicate fish, the individuals are generally killed while they are 

 caught; but Pleur. limanda is, partly, smaller than the plaice, partly it has 

 not been pursued intentionally, the result of which is that it has not suffered 

 so much as the plaice, so that it can still produce a 3-group at several places. 



Pleur. flesus is not pursued with the large vessels, as it lives more 

 inshore, also because it is nearly worthless in the wholesale trade; from this 

 reason, among others, this fish is so often represented by its 3-group; its way 

 of living (i. e. that it fives in fresh water) might perhaps also be conducive 

 to this phenomenon. 



The lemon Dab (Pleicronectes microcephalics). 



During these fishery experiments in the Cattegat have, in all, only 3 

 young ones of this species of fish been caught. They were 4y 4 , 4y 4 , and 4 x / 2 

 inches long, and were caught in the northern Cattegat, as far as I know 

 not on particularly deep water, and on hard bottom. — ■ Quite ripe fish, with 

 ripe spawn and milt, I never saw in the Cattegat; but it seems that the 

 spawning-time occurs in the month of June or thereabouts; after that time 

 many sjDent fishes were seen, before that time many nearly ripe ones. It seems 

 doubtful to me whether it spawns in the very Cattegat in greater numbers. 



With the above exceptions I have not succeeded in getting any spe- 

 cimens smaller than c. 9Y 8 inches in length, and those above this size seem 

 all to have been mature. If little specimens were living in numbers in 

 the Cattegat, we must have found more of them with our seines (which had 

 small meshes), though the young ones of this flat-fish are able perhaps more 

 easily to avoid the seines than for instance those of Pleur. cynoglossus, as" the 

 species, I suppose, lives most on hard bottom with stone, where it is impos- 

 sible or at any rate time-wasting and difficult to draw seines *). 



*) Note: Cunningham (Jour. Mar. Biol. Ass. 1891, p. 113) seems most inclined to think 

 that the young ones live on deep water and from this reason have not got into 

 his fishing-gear near Plymouth. 



