634 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



B.— GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. 



As to their general distribution, they occupy a portion of the frigid zone 

 but preferably the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, especially 

 the Arctic, Northern Atlantic, and Northern Pacific Oceans, as well as the 

 fresh waters of northern North America, Europe, and Asia. They occur, 

 however, sporadically in the torrid zone, and southern hemisphere. In- 

 dividuals are mostnumerousonthecoastsof Newfoundland, NovaScotia, 

 and Labrador, and in the neighborhood of the Loffoden Islands, Norway, 

 Einmark, Iceland, the Earoe, and British Islands, that is, on the coasts 

 of both continents, and on the line where the Arctic and North Atlantic 

 Oceans meet. This region may therefore be named the domain of the 

 Gadidce, and to it belong particularly the 9 genera of the above tables, 

 with 41 species 5 the other 13 genera, with 19 species, belong to the 

 southern temperate and torrid zone, and to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, 

 viz, the extreme limits of the domain. Whether these latter are the 

 remnant of a southern Gadidce fauna, or are simply straying members 

 from the northern one is difficult to decide, but most probably the latter 

 is the case. The northernmost limit is in general 77° north latitude, and 

 the southernmost, in the Atlantic, 30° north latitude. The middle 

 region, therefore^ between 45"^ and 62° north latitude, stretches from 

 Newfoundland to Great Britain and Scandinavia. In the Pacific Ocean 

 the boundary runs from Northeru China, at Chusan, northward along 

 the west coast of Japan and the Kurile Islands to the southern extremity 

 of Kamtschatka, and across to the Aleutian Islands by Kodiak, Sitka, 

 and the islands of the west coast of North America to San Erancisco. 

 In the tropics these fish are found on the east coast of the Phillippines, 

 and at the mouth of the Ganges in one genus and species, Bregmaceros 

 Macclellandi. Only one genus and species is found in the Atlantic of the 

 southern hemisphere, namely, the Fhycis hrasiliensis at Montevideo, 

 likewise but one genus and species in the Pacific on the coast of Chili, 

 Merlucius Gayi, and 2 genera with 3 species at New Zealand, Lotella and 

 PseudopJtycis. This is not surprising, since the coasts of Chili and New 

 Zealand are under the influence of the cold antarctic currents, and 

 Montevideo of the cold Cape Horn current, so that the antarctic drift 

 ice even reaches at times up to that latitude. The fresh, cool water of 

 the Hoang Ho, Yangtsekiang, Brahmapootra, and La Plata is favorable 

 to the existence of Gadidce. 



Statistics show that the fisheries of the cod, which seem to be the 

 most developed of the family Gadidw, are most productive at New- 

 foundland and the LojOFoden Islands, points 870 geographical miles apart. 

 About midway lie Iceland and the Earoe Islands, which seem to form 

 an inclosed region bounded on the north by Spitzbergen, Bear 

 Islands, and Loffoden Islands. The center of this wide, oval, oceanic 

 trough is most probably the northern home of the Gadidce. Between 

 Cape Charles, Cape Earewell, Southwestern Iceland, and the Gulf 



