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 

 (algae 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 possible, 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 from the stiore ; and changes in 

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

 ferent 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 regaixling their place of sojourn and their 



* ludboretning [ til | Departmentet for det Indre | fra Cand. G. O. Sars om de af hatn i 

 Aarene 1870-'73 anstillede Praktisk-videnskabelige | Undersogelserangaaendo Torske- 

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

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