SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 207 



is : What is the cause of the increase ? I will, of course, 

 answer : The planting of the fry. But, not so with 

 Messrs. Hjort and Dahl. They attribute the increase to 

 different sorts of currents, to temperature, salinity, etc., 

 and as you will have seen from the report, Mr. Dahl goes 

 on through one hundred pages to explain these different 

 phenomena and their influence. Well, you will judge 

 for yourself. I shall only add that Dr. Hjort is no friend 

 of fish hatching, but, of course, you know all about that. 

 In " Report on Norwegian Fishery and Marine 

 Investigations," pages 120-137, Dr. Hjort has put forward 

 a series of hypotheses regarding the fisheries in our fjords, 

 which I was bold enough to dispute, and the investiga- 

 tions have shown that I was right on every point. 



1. It is proved that there is a great number of cod 

 (yearlings and larger) in the fjords during the whole 

 summer. 



2. The eggs and fry don't float on the surface, but 

 in the deeper and Salter layers. 



3. The surface current can't bring the eggs out of 

 the fjords, as it only contains very few, as a rule none, of 

 them. 



4. The " local tribes " (page 135) do exist, and the 

 proof is, that, according to Dahl, the spawning cod in the 

 fjord have a mean length of 33 cm., while in the North 

 Sea the spawners, according to Hjort, have a length from 

 55 cm. and upwards. All this, and much more, is proved 

 by Mr. Dahl himself. 



The intention of the Storthing in granting funds for 

 the work was to find out whether the number of yearlings 

 had increased after planting of fry from Flodevigen. My 

 proposal that the investigations should be carried out in 

 September, when the yearling cod was large enough to be 

 caught in a common seine, made of netting with small 



