COD. 



477 



is iiiorc3 than usiuilly dai'k, as often occurs in 

 - ■ the Baltic, it is cnlled IMack (^od (S'varttprsk). 

 ?j. The Rock Cod {Borcitorsh) or Ked Cod {Rod- 

 forsk) (Tl. XXII, H,u-. ;'.), the Xorweo-ian Tang 

 Cod' {'JVircfdrsk), I'cd, with dense, fine spots 

 nnd red fins, or with ,t;l■;l^•ish lirown tins and 

 hack, and red iris. 

 The Cod is one of the most cornnion fishes in the 

 north of tlie Atlantic, at least nbout 300,000,000 or 

 400,000,000 being taken annually in this ocean, and it 

 is also of frecjuent occurrence in the north of the Pa- 

 cific, though it has not yet been ascertained whether 

 the i-ange of the species is equally extensive there". 

 In the Atlantic tlie species goes south from Spitzbergen 

 and Greenland, on the east side to the Pmy of Biscay, 

 and on the west to Cape Hatteras. (,)ii the Scandina- 

 vian coast it is common both to the west and in the 

 Baltic, where it penetrates, as we have mentioned above, 

 into the Gulfs of Bothnia, and Finland, though according 

 to ^Iela it is extremely rare in their imnost parts''. 

 According to Browx-Goode it prefers water of an average 

 temperature of from ?,5° to 4'2° Fahr. ( + 1"/,° to + 5'// 

 Cels.), and according to Juel'' the limits of the varia- 

 tions of the temperature of the water in which the Cod 

 will thrive, may be fixed between at least + 2° and 

 + 7° Cels. The species is most plentiful and attains 

 its maximum size on the brinks of the great ocean- 

 depths, to judge by the largest catches, which are made 

 off Newfoundland and the Lofoden Is. We have no 

 complete statistical reports of the Cod-fishery in the 

 Baltic, but its annual value in each Swedish province 

 cannot be more than 10,000 cl■o^\■ns (£550). In Halland 

 the aiuuial value of the Cod-fishery is about 40,000 

 crowns (£2,200). In Bohusliin the statistics are more 

 complete, and give an annual value of about 650,000 

 — 6S0,000 crowns (£35,750— £37,400). In 1888, on 

 the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, 729,217 cwt. 

 of Cod were taken, of a value of £339,090''. The 

 average yearly catch in Norway, for tiie years 1866 — 81, 

 was about 15' „ million fish of a value of about 13 

 million crowns (£715,000). The animal catch on the 



coast <jf Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada, and the United 

 States is estimated by Hind at 162,500,000 fish. 



The Cod likes deep water, and comes into the 

 shallows, in about 15 — 30 fathoms of water, oidy dur- 

 ing the s])awning-season and while it is young. The 

 largest si)ccimens are always found in very deep water, 

 as mueli as lUO fathoms or even more in depth. Some 

 of the larger specimens, howe^■er, repair in late autumn, 

 in November, to rocky and precipitous coasts, appar- 

 ently to feast on ci'abs and small fishes before retiring 

 to their winter-cjuarters. From the deep water where 

 it passes the winter, the Cod ascends in order to spawn 

 very early in the year in the east of the Atlantic, in 

 January and February on the seaward side of the is- 

 land-belts and in northern regions, generalh- latei- further 

 in among the islands, where most of tlie spawning fish 

 are small, and in the Baltic. In the island-belt of Bo- 

 husltln the spawning-season rarely begins before May, 

 earlier or later according to the early or late arrival of 

 the spi'ing. This is also the case in the Scotch firths, 

 according to Parnell; and oft' Gothland, according to 

 LiNDSTROM, the Cod spawns in April. Probably, how- 

 ever, the spawning-season is of lengthy duration, for 

 all Cod do not spa^\•n simultaneously — the older gener- 

 ally spawn earlier than the younger — and each Cod 

 requires several weeks — according to Eahll sometimes 

 two months — to deposit its spawn, as the whole roe 

 does not ripen at once, but only partially and gradually. 

 The eggs are extremely numerous, though their number 

 varies with the size of the fish. In a female 3 ft. 3 in. 

 long and 21 lbs. in weight Earll estimated the number 

 of the eggs at 2,732,237, and in another 75 lbs. in 

 weight, whose ovaries weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz., at 9.100,000. 

 Earll assumes that only about ' ^ of these eggs could 

 grow ripe for depositing each week during the spawning- 

 season. During his investigations of the Cod-fishery 

 oft" Cape Ann (^lass.) in 1878 — 79, he found the first 

 spawning female on the 2nd of September, and at the 

 beginning of December half the specimens taken were 

 in spawning condition. In this localitv, too, the spawn- 

 ing was at its height in February and ^larch, but even 



" Of the fishery on tlio coast of Alaska Bean writes {Vat. Coll. Fish. U. S. Nat. Mm., Gt. Intern. Fisli. Exhib. London 1883, p. 6): 

 "The most important species, commercinlly, is the Comnum Cod {Gadus morrhiia), whicli is exceedingly plentiful on certain banks in the 

 Gulf of Alaska and in tlie vicinity of llic islands of tlie Aleutian chain. This fish will some day be as valuable in the Pacific as it is now 

 in the Atlantic." The range of the Cod also extends, according to Bean (Fish. Comm. Rep. 1882, p. 1039). from Puget Sound north to 

 the Arctic boundary of Behring Sea and west to Okhotsk. 



* According to Gbimm {Fisliimj mid Iluntimj on Russian Water/!, p. 11) the C'od goes quite up to Kronstadt. 



' Norsk Fiskeritidende, 8:de Aarg. (1889), p. 301. 



•^ Fish Trades Gazette, 12th and 26th Jan., 1889. 



