V.-REPORT OF PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS 

 OF THE COD FISHERIES NEAR THE LOFFODEN ISLANDS, 

 MADE DURING THE YEARS 1870-1873. 



By G. O. Sars. 



A.— EEPORT FOR 1870* 



It was my intention on this journey, if possible, to extend the ob- 

 servations of the development of the winter-codfish which I had made 

 last year, and at the same time to renew my observations on certain 

 points which I thought needed corroboration. By having made my 

 observations at different seasons of the year, I had gradually succeeded 

 in following the development of the winter-codfish from the egg to the 

 age of one year; and among the rest I proved one important fact which 

 will play a prominent part in all future investigations of the cod-fish- 

 eries, viz : That the small form of codfish, which, under different names 

 (algSB fish, bottom-fish, &c.), is found on our northern and western 

 coasts all the year round, is not, as was formerly thought, a separate 

 variety of the codfish, but the offspring of the winter-codfish ; therefore 

 winter-codfish which have not yet reached their full development. I 

 had, likewise, in the course of my investigations, convinced myself that 

 the many differences of color and shape occurring in these fish are, if 

 not exclusively, at any rate to a great extent, due to the surroundings 

 in which they live, especially the nature of the bottom, and the food 

 which is dependent on this ; and that if these surroundings are changed, 

 the fish assume a different appearance in an astonishingly short time. 

 It was my object this year to examine these fish during their further 

 growth, and, if j^ossible, to study and explain the various phases in their 

 mode of living, as I had formerly done with regard to those young fish 

 which had not yet reached the age of one year. I found, however, very 

 soon, that the older the fish grew the more difficult such an investigation 

 would be. Formerly I had been able to make my observations with the 

 greatest ease from my boat, or even Irom the shore ; and changes in 

 the weather had never seriously interrupted my work. All was dif- 

 fereut'now. The fish had long since left the coast, and gone out to the 

 vast ocean; and 1 was thus obliged to use my fishing implements in 

 order to get any idea at all regarding their place of sojourn and their 



* IndberetniDg | til | Departmentet for det Indre | fra Caud. G. O. Sars oui de af ham i 

 Aarene 1870-73 austilledoPraktisk-videnskabelige | Undersogelser augaaendo Torske- 

 fiskeriet i Lofoten. | Christiania, 1874. Translated by Herman Jacobson. 

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