208 



NATITKAL H1STOKY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



fifteen to thirty fathoms of water, coining into the shallows in winter. On the coasts of Labrador, 

 Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Eastern Maine, moving to and from the shore from deeper to 

 shallower water and vice versa to secure at different seasons of the year a temperature environment 

 best suited to their needs, they are near the shore in summer and in deep water in winter. 



In Norway they are caught, to some extent, in the fiords in the summer season, though more 

 are caught in winter, while in summer great numbers of them still remain on the off-shore banks. 

 Professor Hind gives this exposition of the movements of the Cod on the Labrador coast. 1 

 "The following tables show the periods of the first arrival and last catch of Cod on the 

 Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. In -framing these tables I have been careful to eliminate 

 extreme seasons, for the Cod have been known to approach the shore during an exceptionally 

 early season, a fortnight or three weeks sooner than during the average of years. Early and late 

 springs occur in the movements offish just as irregularly as in the movements of migratory birds 

 or in the leafing and flowering of plants. The salmon and the Cod generally come within a week 

 of one another, and the Eskimo of Ukkasiksalik have a tradition that the salmon may always be 

 looked for on the day of the first spring tide after the 16th July. In 1875, a very late season, 

 Codfish were not taken before the 7th August; this year they came in on the 20th July, and this 

 accords with the, experience on other parts of the coast. 



" Table showing the approximate mean date of arrival of Cod, mean date of departure, and mean length 

 of the fishing season for Cod, in Northeastern Newfoundland, Southern and Northern Labrador, 



"From this table, imperfect as it is, we may deduce the following law: 'Over an area 

 extending northerly from Conception Bay for seven hundred miles, the Cod approach the shore 

 about one week later for every degree of latitude we advance to the north.' 



1 HIND, H. Y. : The Effect of the Fishery Clauses of the Treaty of Washington upon the Fishcrim-n of British 

 North America. Halifax, 1877. 



