THE COD FISHERIES NEAR THE LOFFODEN ISLANDS. Gil 



of catching them with small liues; but toward autumn their number de- 

 creases very perceptibly, although even then '^algrc-fish" of difl'erent sizes 

 are occasionally caught. From this it appears as if the " going out" took 

 place, to some extent at least, in the course of the second year after the 

 hatching. It is possible, however, that later in the year they only barely 

 go out to the deep water, where there is no fishing at that time, and 

 that they stay near the outer side of the great ridge (Egbakke). 1 con- 

 sider it highly probable that some, although, comparatively speaking, 

 a small number, remain somewhat longer, until they are fully grown and 

 their roe and milt is fully developed, and these are probably the fish which 

 are known to the fishermen under the name of " coming-in fish," " ridge- 

 fish," and "bottom-fish," and which are by them considered as the fore- 

 runners of the schools of codfish which come in at the beginning of 

 winter. It is quite natural, however, that there is not room enough for 

 all the masses of fish which gradually migrate from the algai bottoms 

 toward the deep. The greater number of them must, therefore, go farther 

 in order to find sufficient food. Gradually, therefore, they reach the 

 outermost bottoms, from which they again migrate farther. 



The actual place of sojourn of the codfish is, as I said before, not 

 known with absolute certainty. I shall, however, venture to make a 

 supposition; all the more, as from several reasons I have felt constrained 

 to abandon the supposition expressed in my first report, that they 

 staid in the great deep between the ridge and the coast. Later inves- 

 tigations have made it seem probable that their place of sojourn is not 

 the deep between the coast and the ridge, but this ridge itself. Early 

 observations have shown that this ridge, which, though interrupted in 

 several places, forms a continuous series of shallow places, extends 

 along the greater part of our coast at a considerable distance from the 

 land, and that it has always abounded in fish of various kinds, among 

 the rest large codfish. People formerly believed that these codfish, dis- 

 tinguished from other codfish by the name "bank-fish," always lived 

 here, and must consequently also spawn and develop here. But my ob- 

 servations on the propagation and development of the codfish have con- 

 vinced me that this cannot be the case. According to these observa- 

 tions all the codfish, without exception, must spawn near the coast, in 

 order that the eggs may be properly impregnated and hatched, and that 

 the young fish may find the food which they need at the various stages 

 of their development. ISTothiug therefore seems more natural than to 

 suppose that the "bank-fish" and the codfish are one and the same fish, 

 and that this ridge stretching out far at sea is the proper place of so- 

 journ not only of the codfish, but possibly of other fish which, like 

 them, only appear near the coast at certain seasons of the year, e. g., the 

 herring. In this locality, therefore, the full grown codfish live all during 

 summer and autumn, and only when their sexual organs have been fully 

 developed, which probably takes place the third year after the hatching, 

 do they gather here in large schools in order to come nearer to the 

 coast for the purpose of spawning. 



