382 FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



The cod goes in schools when feeding, spawning, or migrating. Although 

 sometimes found in shoal water or even at the surface, it is essentially a deep- 

 water fish, preferring depths of 20 to 70 fathoms and even occurring at a depth 

 of 300 fathoms. 



The largest cod recorded from New England waters weighed 211 pounds and 

 was more than 6 feet long. The average weight of the large run of fish caught 

 on the New England shore is about 35 pounds, while on the far distant Grand 

 Banks the average is only 20 pounds; the small run of fish on all the grounds is 

 about 12 pounds. 



The cod eats almost any kind of animal food of proper size, and takes it 

 anywhere between surface and bottom. Favorite articles are mollusks, crabs, 

 lobsters, and various kinds of fish, especially herring, menhaden, alewives, 

 mackerel, capelin, and lant. 



The spawning season on our coast extends from October to June. The eggs 

 float at the surface, are about .055 inch in diameter, and several millions may 

 be laid by a full sized fish. Several hundred millions of cod are hatched each 

 year by the United States Bureau of Fisheries at its stations in Massachusetts and 

 Maine. The eggs hatch in 20 to 23 days in water of a temperature of 38° F., and 

 in 1 1 days at a temperature of 47° F. The young reach a length of 3 inches in 6 

 months, 9 to 12 inches in 18 months, 22 inches in 42 months. 



The cod is now known to occur regularly on the North Carolina coast north 

 of Cape Hatteras. From inquiries made by the writer, it appears that for a 

 number of years fishermen from New York and New Jersey, setting large-meshed 

 nets in the ocean off Roanoke Island, have caught numbers of cod in fall, winter, 

 and spring, some of the fish weighing 30 pounds. One fall 30 cod were taken 

 at one lift of a blue-fish net off Nags Head. In April, 1904, when the writer 

 was at Roanoke Island, numbers of cod were being caught, mostly in sturgeon 

 nets, 1 fish being brought into Manteo on April 6. It is reported that cod are 

 sometimes found on the Hatteras beaches after storms. According to Dr. 

 Coker, there is a circumstantial account of the occasional capture of a cod in the 

 lower part of Neuse River. Professor Goode (1884) states that ''stragglers have 

 been observed about Ocracoke Inlet". 



It is possible that a winter cod fishery of some importance might be estab- 

 lished on the northern part of the coast of the state, either with lines or gill nets. 

 The fish will be found in greatest abundance on the offshore shoals. 



Genus UROPHYCIS Gill, Hakes; Codlings. 



Form elongate, slightly compressed; head conical; mouth large, with broad 

 bands of sharp teeth on jaws and vomer; maxillary extending beyond pupil; a 

 small barbel on chin; gill-membranes partly connected, and partly joined to 

 isthmus; scales small; dorsal fins 2, the anterior sometimes with a few rays fila- 

 mentous, the posterior long and low; anal fin single, similar to second dorsal; 

 caudal fin small, the peduncle slender; ventral fins well separated, filamentous, 

 bifid, composed of 2 slender rays. Seven species on east coast of America, some 



