of th Fishery Board for Scotland. 
283 
IV. — REPORT ON THE PELAGIC OVA, LARVAL, AND YOUNG 
FOOD-FISHES PROCURED BY THE ' GARLAND.' By 
Professor M'Intosh,* LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 
THE PELAGIC OVA. 
With the exception of the ova of the rockling and dab comparatively 
few specimens occurred at the several stations, showing how widely 
diffused the eggs become throughout the water, except on certain grounds 
where the fishes congregate at the spawning season, as off the Island of 
May and on the banks at Lofoten in Norway. It occasionally has 
happened, indeed, that the masses of ova — chiefly of the cod — have been 
beached as a low rampart by the retiring tide at Lofoten. Nothing like 
this, however, has been seen in British waters. 
The collections made on board the ' Garland ' are of interest as 
showing the general condition of our waters during the main spawning 
period, and are also of value for comparison with more local observations. 
Thus, at the commencement of the year the eggs of the earlier fishes such 
as the plaice, together w T ith young fishes of the previous season, alone 
appear, followed by the eggs of the haddock, dab, rockling and bib. 
Soon after these early eggs come the minute larval fishes, and these gra- 
dually increase in size as the season advances, though in most cases the 
ranks are very irregular in any given species from the irregularity of the 
spawning time, as well as the more or less lengthened period during which 
the issue of the eggs take place in a given example. The variable rate of 
growth is also another factor which soon comes in. 
So far as these collections go they tend to corroborate the view elsewhere 
mentioned that the post-larval cod and haddock probably resemble each 
other very closely, so closely indeed that it has not yet been possible to 
separate them until the characteristic features of the cod appear — as shown 
in the ■ Researches. ' t The youngest stages of the haddock after the early 
post-larval condition are unknown (as such), being either at present indis- 
tinguishable from the same stages of the cod, or what is less probable, 
since no trace of them has appeared during recent investigations, they 
form separate schools. The cod and the whiting have been traced with 
considerable completeness from the egg onward in British waters, but at 
what period the young haddock puts oh its special characteristics after 
consorting with the post-larval cod we are unable to say. The smallest 
specimens hitherto procured, and which have all the features of the adult, 
measure about 2 \ inches. The close resemblance of the forms just 
mentioned as well as of many of the common pleuronectids (flounders), 
raises some interesting questions in regard to their phylogeny, which, 
however, cannot be touched on here. 
Some of the forms, e.g., the gadoids, pleuronectids, herrings, and sand- 
eels, procured in the ' Garland ' have a very wide distribution round our 
shores, while others, such as the wolf-fish have an area more or less 
restricted, a feature perhaps due to the demersal ova, and the comparatively 
large size and vigorous condition of the larval fishes. It is remarkable 
that no trace of the pelagic eggs of the frog-fish (easily recognised as a 
long gelatinous riband, especially after the blackish embryos are formed) 
* I have to acknowledge the kind assistance of Mr Ernest W. L. Holt in looking 
over part of the collection, which was made by Mr Thomas Scott, F. L. S. , on 
board the 1 Garland. ' 
t Trans. Roij. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxv. part iii. 
