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It seems that there is here an indication of a younger annual series be- 

 sides the grown-up mature ones, at any rate of the males. The females 

 had ripe spawn, quite ready to be shed. The eggs had a pale oil-globule, 

 and were estimated ivithout a microscope at between 1 /., and 3 / 4 mm in diameter. 



The males, at any rate the larger ones, were, I presume, also mature. 



1886 I had onboard the »Hauch« taken 5 specimens of this little floun- 

 der in the southern Cattegat. 



Strange to tell, it was not found again in the Cattegat in 1893 by Bay 

 and Hansen. 



This fish is practically of no importance to our fisheries. 



It is not likely I think, that such a small fish as this requires three 

 years in order to be developed, such as the larger species do; it will be fair, 

 therefore, to attribute to it two annual series (see table XVII), the first annual 

 series, and the second or the grown-up fish. 



The Sole (Solea vulgaris) 



The sole is a very common fish in the Cattegat; a considerable fishery 

 is carried on for it both in the northern and in the southern part. 



At certain times of the year, in the summer, the soles approach the coast ; 

 they go into the Issefjord, for instance, in the months of May — June, and 

 produce in this time ripe spawn; whether the latter is shed there I do not 

 know for certain. Also after the spawning-time the grown-up soles will live 

 on the shores of the Cattegat on shallow water. In winter, however, they are 

 found on- the deep only, on the soft clay deposits, in which, according to the 

 fishermen's statements, they lie bored down, so that the men must make the 

 seines cut deeply down into the clay in order the catch them. — The night 

 is said to be the best time for the fishing of soles, and I must believe that it 

 is so; for in all our hauls we have only exceptionally got any soles, and all 

 the draughts were made in the day. 



The specimens we have measured (table XVIII) are, with exception of 

 the little ones, bought of the fishermen; they are said to catch much'smaller 

 specimens than these at other seasons, viz. when they employ seines with 

 small meshes particularly adopted for soles; but such fishery could not pay 

 at the time when I studied this matter, and was consequently not carried on. 

 The fishery for this fish is said to have decreased much, just because it was 

 pursued so eagerly with seines with small meshes. 



The female soles, (as will be seen from the tables) are already able to 

 spawn when they are c. 9 inches long, so that alb larger than that as a rule 



