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are obliged to draw our conclusions, as the ease is here now and then, 

 not only from positive observations but also, as it were, from negative, 

 i. e. the want of certain sizes of fish in various seas at various times. 



Besides information of the actual sizes of the plaice we caught, set 

 down for each specimen by means of a • or » on a scale of Danish inches, 

 the tables contain something which is theoretical, viz. the figures 0, 1, 2, 3. 

 By these I have intended to indicate that the group of fishes, beside which 

 they are printed, is not quite one year old (0), between 1 and 2 years 

 old (1), between 2 and 3 years (2), three years and more (3). (Later on, 

 further particulars on this matter). 



The group which, at any rate at certain times (May, June, July etc.), 

 is most sharply distinguished from the other groups with regard to the size 

 (length) of its individuals is the 0-group (see the tables). It occurs in the 

 tables from the month of May as quite small specimens, about 1 inch long, 

 and has been followed till November, table VI, column 20 (the Skaw) where 

 by means of a plaice-seine with small meshes it was proved in 1892 to corn- 

 prise specimens from 2 1 /, — 4 inches. There have probably been still smaller 

 specimens at that time at the Skaw; for in 1893 when Lieutenant Hansen 

 particularly pursued these young fishes (0) at Bangsbo with prawn-catcher and 

 Ammodytes-seine from May — October, the smallest ones (table III) were even 

 but 1% inch long on the 19. October. How now this may be, whether per- 

 haps there is a difference between the various years, so that the fry now 

 grows a little quicker now a little more slowly, I shall not stop to consider 

 (cmp. however table II, Fseno, 29. Septbr. 1891); we shall scarcely meet 

 great differences here. 



This 0-group is found numerously represented in the northern Cattepat 

 (the Skaw, Aalbsek, Freclerikshavn, Bangsbo, at Hals, by the Limfjord ami 

 Mariagerfjord); moreover I can state that it is found on the northern shore 

 of Sealand (this is not in the tables but in the » Researches No. 1 — 238 «); 

 it was found in the Lesser Belt 1891 (table II), but not in 1892 & 93, 

 furthermore it was found at Kjerteminde and in the northmost part of the 

 Sound at Snekkersten, but south of these places 1 have found only 4 speci- 

 mens in all, which perhaps may be classed among this group, 3 of them at 

 Bornholm (Snogebsek), table VIII, one at Hesnces on Fcdster, » Research No. 

 113«, 2 inches long. 



This result, that these small specimens of plaice are caught in almost 

 unbounded numbers in the northern parts of the Cattegat, always immediately 

 on the shore, but are so to speak quite wanting in the seas south of 



