COD. 



473 



1..111. Ill, p. 235: Mki.a, Vert. Fenn., p. 298, lab. IX; 



Day, /7.s-/(. G:t Brit., Irel., vol. I, p. 275, tab. LXXVIII ; 



Mob., Hcke, Fiscli. Osts., p. 72; Bit. Goode, Fisher., Fischer. 



Industr. U. St., sect. I, p. 200, fnb. 58, A. 

 Gadtts barbatus (p. p.) Lin., 6'i/st. Nat., 1. c. 

 Gadiis ruber, Lacep., Hist. IVat. Poi.'is., vol. V, p. 671; Hollb., 



Bohusl. Fisk:, H. II, p. 31 c. fab. 

 Gadiis iiiacrocepltalits, Tn,., Mem. Acad. Iiriii. Sc. Petersb., 



toiu. II (1807 et 1808), p. 350, tab. XVI ct XVII. 

 Aforrhua Americana, Stoker, Host. Journ. Nat. Hist., vol. II 



(1838 — 1839), p. 448; Mem. Amer. Acad. Art.«, Sc, ii. ser., 



vol. VI (1859) p. 343, tab. XXVII, Hg. 4. 



Obs. As we see liy (lie above list of synonyms Willugiiby 

 and, after bis time, AitTEDl adopted only two of tlie three species 

 that ScilONEVKi.DE imagined be could distingnisb in onr Common Cod. 

 In his description of the first of them, Aselliis major, WiLLLTtHliY 

 writes: Cauda plana fere et mininie forcipata: primus radius prima' 

 ah ano pinncB brevis est et spinosus. This appeared in Artedi as: 

 Gadus .... Cauda wquali fere cum radio prima spinoso, which Linn^us 

 corrected to: cauda suboequali, radio primo aiiali spinoso. This con- 

 fusion between a simple but articulated (soft) ray and a spinous ray 

 was long accepted, on Linn.el'ss authority", in combination with 

 changes of growth, as a distinction between the Great Cod (Sw. 

 kabiljo — morhua, morue in Belon) and the Lesser (young Cod and 

 Baltic Cod — callarias). The name of Gadus morrhua is thus to be 

 rejected as based on an error; and that of G. callarias nmst there- 

 fore be recognised as the only right one. especially as it is of class- 

 ical origin, though the ancient Greeks could not possibly have applied 

 it to the Cod, which is not a Mediterranean fish. The first to reject 

 the above character was Faber'; but, like NlLSSON'^, who avoided 

 making any reference to this character, he accepted the species as 

 distinct. It was Fries, in the former edition of this work'', who first 

 joined these hypothetical species into one, which he called ^''Torsken, 

 G. Aforrhtta^^ in the system.-itic distribution of this genus. He had 

 been led to tliis conclusion in 1838 by his observations in the island- 

 belt of Bohnslan, observations which were subsequently pursued and 

 verified by EkstrOm. The latter summed up his results as follows: 



the form previ(jusly called Gadus morrhua really consists only of 

 older specimens, and the Gadvs callarias of former writers of young 

 specimens of the same species, which in shallower and not so salt 

 water, however, as in the Baltic, never attain a size that fpiite 

 matches that of a full-grown Cod from the Ncjrth Sea. A short time 

 before Ekstrum suggested this explanation, Kroyer in Danmarks Fiske 

 had discussed this question at length and come to the same result. 



Tlie u.sunl size of the Common Cod taken within 

 the island-belts on the coa.st of Scandinavia is about 

 6 dm. 'i'hose which are caught on banks in the open 

 sea ;irc- larirer, and pretty fVequentlv attain a length 

 of \i dm. and a weight of about 17 kgm. Specimen.s 

 of this size enter the Sound, according to Schaoerstrom, 

 and the south-west of the Baltic, according to MoBUS 

 and Heincke. The largest specimen from Kiel Bay 

 that the latter writers had seen, weighed 19 kgm. 

 Much larger Cod are, however, on record, and Brown- 

 GooDE gives instances from America in which the 

 weight was as much as 72' , kgm. The Cod may 

 attain this size on the brink of the ocean depths, but 

 in Scandinavia it probabh' never grows so large. The 

 largest specimen Kroyer had seen on the Lofoden Is- 

 lands, was nearly "25 kgm. in weight and about 140 

 cm. long^ Like other true marine fishes it is .some- 

 what stunted in growth in tlie Baltic; but even in the 

 south of the Gulf of Bothnia, off Usthammar, Lillje- 

 BOUG found Cod 675 mm. long and .3' j kgm. in weight. 

 In Baggen Fjord, in the inner island-belt of Stockholm, 

 the species attains a length of at least 600 mm.'' 



" Schagerstr6si has also fallen into this mistake. He saw, however, that in both the ''species" the anal fins were exactly alike in this respect. 

 ' Naturg. Fisch. Islands, p. 105. 

 <^ Frodr., 1. c. 



'' Skand. Fiskar, 1st Ed., p. 78. 



' According to Eakll (Rep. U. S. Fish. Comm. 1878, pp.733 — 4) the following proportions exist in the Cod between the length and the weight: 

 n) in the males 



length varying between 42 and 80 cm., average length 694 mm., average weight 3-2 kgm. 

 84 „ 90 ., „ „ 867 „ „ „ 5-9 „ 



91 „ 117 „ „ „ 1.010 „ ,. „ 9-7 ., 



b) in the females 



length varying between 47 and 80 cm., average length 674 mm., average weight 24 kgm. 



81 „ 93 ,. „ „ 868 61 .. 



94 „ 113 „ .. ,. 1.031 9-46 ., 



„ 114 „ 146 „ ,. ., 1,280 ., .. ., 19-22 .. 



The smallest male was 42 cm. long and weighed 0'57 kgm.; the largest female 146 cm. long and 24-5 kgm. in weight. 

 / In his •'Gotlands Fiskar" (1. c, pji. 26, scq.) Professor Linustrum directs attention to the so-called Doomsday Fish which has hung 

 for several centuries in Wisby Cathedral, and the history of which, as told by BraV.vius (end of the 16th century), Bertius (1616), and 

 Strei.ow (1633), was summed up by Haquin Spegel (Rudera Gotlundica. Mss.) at the end of the 17th century as follows: "In the year 

 1289 a large and rare fish was caught off Wisby, in the belly of which a new-born, living child was found that cried and screamed loudly. 

 The fish was hung up in St. Mary's Church, and a portion of it seems still to be preserved. " Lixn.eus mentions it in his "Glands och Got- 

 lanJs Ee.?a" (p. 165): "The fish that was hung in the some church over the picture of St. George, was a Piscis malacopterygius, cauda 

 bifurca, pinnis dorsi duabus, ani unica, cum altera intra banc et caudain, e regiutie posterioris pinna dorsalis; the ignorant folk said that of 

 this fish it was prophesied that the Day of Judgment should come when it had rotted away, and therefore could not be far off." By tlie 

 kind permission of the Chapter of the Cathedral we have been enabled to examine the existing remains of this fish, consisting of eighteen 

 caudal vertebiiP, a few rays from the posterior dorsal or anal fins, some of the interspinal bones, and a piece of dried flesh, all of which — 



Scandinavian Fishes. • "^ 



