CHAP. VIL] THE COMMON COD. 291 



The common cod (Morrhua vulgaris) is, as the name im- 

 plies, one of our best-known fishes, and it was at one time 

 very plentiful and cheap. It is found in the deep waters of 

 all our northern seas, but has never been known in the Medi- 

 terranean. It has been largely captured on the coasts of 

 Scotland, and, as is elsewhere mentioned, it occurs in profu- 

 sion on the shores of Newfoundland, where its plentifulness 

 led to a great fishery being established. The cod is ex- 

 tremely voracious, and eats up most greedily the smaller in- 

 habitants of the seas ; it grows to a large size, and is very 

 prolific in the perpetuation of its kind. A cod-roe has more 

 than once been found to be half the gross weight of the fish, 

 and specimens of the female have been caught with up- 

 wards of eight millions of eggs ; but of course it cannot be 

 expected that in the great waste of waters all the ova will be 

 fertilised, or that any but a small percentage of the fish will 

 ever arrive at maturity. This fish spawns in mid-winter, but 

 there are no very reliable data to show when it becomes re- 

 productive. My own opinion has already been expressed that 

 the cod is an animal of slow growth, and I would venture to 

 say that it is at least three years old before it is endowed 

 with any breeding power. I may call attention here to one 

 of the causes that must tend to render the fish scarce. As if 

 the natural enemies of the young fish were not sufficient to 

 aid in its extirpation, and the loss of the ova from causes over 

 which man has no control not enough in the way of destruction, 

 there is a commerce in cod-roe, and enormous quantities of it, 

 as I have mentioned in the preceding chapter, are used in 

 France as ground-bait for the sardine fishery ! The roe of this 

 fish is also frequently made use of at table ; a cod-roe of from 

 two to four pounds in weight can unfortunately be bought for 

 a mere trifle, but it ought to cost a good few pounds instead 

 of a few pence. I have elsewhere stated that the quantity of 

 eggs yielded by a female cod is more than three millions : 



