610 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



in abundance, consisting of different littoral animals, especially crusta- 

 ceans. 



The young codfish may soon, however, be distinguished from the 

 young pollack by their different habits. The young pollack are generally 

 found near the surface, while the young codfish keep nearer the bottom, 

 the deeper the larger they grow, and their favorite places seem to be 

 those where the coast falls off abruptly. 



It will be noticed that on the whole the similarity in the stationary 

 mode of life between the young codfish and the young pollack is only a 

 seeming one, but that the former are in reality migrating all the time, 

 which circumstance only escaped my observation because they do it so 

 gradually and at different times according to their different age. Those 

 young fish which in the beginning come close to the shore migrate in 

 proportion as they grow larger into deeper water, and their place is 

 taken by smaller and younger fish which hitherto have kept near the 

 medusse, or have been in that state of transition when in large schools 

 they roam about near the outer coast. These again, as they grow up, 

 very gradually seek the deeper iilaces, which have been left by the other 

 young fish, which migrate to still deeper water, «&c., until at last at the 

 age of one year the young fish, well known to the fishermen by the name 

 of " algSB-fish," make their appearance at a depth of 20 to 30 fathoms on 

 the sandy bottoms between the groves of algae near the outer coast. 



I believe that, by my former remarks, I. have proved satisfactorily 

 that these fish are not different from the codfish proper, but that they 

 are the young fish from the preceding year. It is true that on certain 

 parts of our coast, especially in the deep fiords, small codfish are found, 

 which always keep in shallow water and never grow as large as the 

 large codfish ; but this is only caused by the natural conditions being 

 less favorable to the development of the codfish than near the outer 

 coast. In the fish-market in Christiania I have seen codfish which only 

 measured one foot in length, and which, nevertheless, had mature roe 

 and milt. Such instances never occur near the Loffoden Islands, where 

 the smallest codfish having completely developed sexual organs never 

 measure less than a yard. Even in the largest algae-codfish found near 

 these islands I, in most cases, only discovered very insignificant begin- 

 nings of roe or milt, which show that all these fish occurring on the 

 algae bottoms are by no means fully grown, and are only temporarily 

 sojourning there, and finally go out to sea, where probably in a short 

 time they assume the distinct characteristic features of the codfish. 

 As yet I cannot say from i^ersonal observations at what time of the year 

 or at what age they leave the coast, but hope that future investigations 

 will throw more light on this matter. I consider it very probable, how- 

 ever, that their " going out " is as gradual and scarcely noticeable as 

 their iirevious migrations to a shorter distance from the coast. 



From the fishermen I learned that the one-year-old codfish occur 

 most numerously a short time after the close of the winter fisheries and 

 far into the summer, for those persons who stay at home are in the habit 



