220 NATURAL niSTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



It is interesting to compare these with the observations made during the last century, refer- 

 ences to which may be found in all the standard works on natural history. Leuwenhoek is said to 

 have found in a Cod of middling size 384,000 eggs. Harmer fonnd, in one weighing eighteen or 

 twenty pounds, between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 eggs. It was examined December 23, and was 

 estimated to have 294 eggs to the grain, the ovaries weighing 12,540 grains; the total number, 

 according to this calculation, is 3,686,760.* 



THE SIZE OF CODFISH. The result of Mr. Earll's observations indicates that in June the 

 fish hatched the previous winter, or about six months old, range from one and a half to three 

 inches in length; while those from nine to thirteen inches long, and weighing seven or eight 

 ounces, were eighteen months old; those seventeen to eighteen inches long, and weighing two to 

 two and a quarter pounds, were supposed to be two years and a half old; those of about twenty- 

 two inches, which weighed four to five pounds, were three years and a half old. He also concludes 

 that the male reaches maturity at the age of three, and the female at the age of four years, for the 

 smallest ripe male noticed during the season of 1878-'79 weighed three and one-half pounds, and 

 the smallest ripe female five pounds. 



On pages 733-734 of Mr. Earll's report may be found the measurements of a large number 

 of Codfish of different weights, and with the ovaries and spermaries in different stages of develop- 

 ment. These measurements are interesting, since they show the relation between the length 

 and weight of individual fish. 



I have before me memoranda relating to a large number of enormous Codfish, taken along 

 the New England coast at various times from 1830 to 1879. It seems unnecessary to refer to them, 

 excepting the cases of a few which exceed one hundred pounds in weight. 



Capt. King Harding, of Swampscott, tells me that he once caught, on the eastern side of Cape 

 Cod, a fish weighing 101 pounds as it came from the water. 



On the 22d of July, 1873, Miss Fannie Belis, of Saint Louis, while on a fishing excursion off 

 Eastern Point, on board the yacht "United States," caught a Cod which weighed 130 pounds. 



Capt. G. H. Martin caught, off Chatham, a Codfish which weighed, dressed, 111 pounds. 



Capt. Stephen Mar, of Gloucester, saw a Codfish taken on George's Banks in 1838 which, after 

 having been eviscerated, weighed 136 pounds. 



Captain Atwood says, on the coast of Cape Cod he has never seen a male Codfish, with one 

 exception, which weighed more than 60 pounds; he once saw one, however, which weighed 160 

 pounds. This fish was not much larger than an ordinary fish weighing 75 pounds, but was very 

 thick. 



Captain Atwood remarks: "In regard to size, the Cod differs very widely in different localities. 

 When taken on the Grand Bank it usually requires from thirty to forty to make a quintal when 

 dried. Those caught in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with hand-lines are smaller, requiring 

 seventy to eighty per quintal; in the same locality, however, Cod caught on trawl-lines require 

 only twenty to twenty-five per quintal, while on the coast of Labrador they are all small, and it 

 requires about one hundred to one hundred and ten to make a quintal." 



Writing ia the summer of 1877, Captain Atwood expressed the opinion that the average 

 weight of the fish taken about Cape Cod was in the neighborhood of ten pounds; but he informed 

 me that in the winter of 1877, in two days, thirty thousand pounds of Codfish were landed from 

 the boats, and that there was not a fish among them small enough to be classed as a market Cod, 

 a market Cod weighing from six to ten or twelve pounds. 



1 Philosophical Transactions, Ivii, 1778, p. 287. 



