THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 173 



used, of course, as food iu the differeut modes of preparation. Particular parts are 

 tised as food, other thau the muscles. The sounds are used as food, converted into 

 gelatine, and in the form of isinglass. They serve a great variety of purposes. The 

 roes are used as food, and bait for fish. The skin is tanned for leather and clothing. 

 A great many nations dress very largely in the skins of cod and salmon. And the fish 

 is dried and used as food [for cattle in Iceland and Norway. The hones are used as 

 fuel in some places ; and, of course, the oil is used for medicine, and for the various 

 purposes to which animal oils are applied. There is scarcely any part that is not 

 valuable. The offal, in Norway, is converted into a valuable manure. Every part is 

 called into play. 



Q. The bones ? — A. They are burned as fuel, as well as eaten by dogs, or converted 

 into fertilizers. 



Q. It is not, probably, applied in the United States to all the uses you have speci- 

 fied ? — A. No ; I don't think the skin is used as clothing in the United States, but it 

 makes an admirable leather for shoes, and makes very nice slippers. We have in 

 Washington quite a large number of articles made from the skins, as used in Alaska, 

 the Aleutian Islands, and in Siberia. 



Q. You think they can be used ? — A. I have no doubt in the course of years the skin 

 will be utilized very largely. In fact, I may remark, that at the late exhibition at 

 the Westminster Aquarium, among the special articles exhibited were shoes made 

 from leather of the codfish, furnished by an exhibitor from Christiauia. 



Q. You think it is the foremost fish? — A. I think it is. There is none that furnishes 

 so important an industry or which is so abundantly or widely disseminated. 



Q. What is the geographical distribution of the cod ? — A. There are quite a num- 

 ber of species of the cod, some characterized by certain peculiarities and some by 

 others. The cod in the North Pacific is different from that iu the North Atlantic. 

 Both are, however, codfish, and no one could mistake themfor anything else but cod. 

 In the Atlantic the cod are found on the American side from the Winter Quarter 

 Shoals, on the coast of Virginia ; that is the most southern point I have traced it to* 

 from that indefinitely to the northward. It is found everywhere upon the coast, in 

 the Bay of Fundy, the Bay of Saint Lawrence, off Labrador and Newfoundland, on 

 the Grand Bank, and many other places. The European species, although by some 

 considererd distinct from ours, probably have a geographical range equally extensive. 

 I believe they are not in Spitzbergen. 



Q. What is the most important locality ? — A. Probably the most important single 

 locality that furnishes the greatest amount of fish with the least possible labor in the 

 shortest possible time is that in the vicinity of the Lofoden Islands, on the northwest 

 coast of Norway. That is a region where usually twenty-five millions offish are taken 

 iu three months by some twenty-five thousand men. The Dogger Bank, in tho North 

 Sea, is another European locality. In America the most extensive stores of cod are 

 found, I suppose, on the Grand Bank and the George's. They are found, perhaps, 

 also on the great banks off the coast of Labrador, 20 or 30 miles off the coast, extend- 

 ing for hundreds of miles. 



Q. Now give the Commission some notion of the abundance of codfish. — A. Well 

 I have covered that point in my reply to the previous question. It is found iu the 

 greater part of those regions at some portion of the year. It is usually more abun- 

 dant in the spring or summer, autumn or winter, in each locality, in numbers only to 

 be measured by the ability of man to capture. 



Q. What do you say of their migrations ? — A. The cod is a fish the migrations of 

 which cannot be followed readily, because it is a deep-sea fish and does not show on 

 the surface as tho mackerel and herring; but so far as we can ascertain, there is a 

 partial migration; at least some of the fish don't seem to remain in the same localities 

 the year round. They change their situation in search of food, or in consequence of 

 the variations in the temperature, the percentage of salt in the water, or somo other 

 cause. In the south of New England, south-of Cape Cod, the fishing is largely off- 



