THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 283 



is the bread of the sea. He may be called the bread and 

 butter, for more surely than any other marine species does 

 he supply a food of which the white man's palate does not 

 tire. His flesh is rich and gelatinous, without being fatty. 

 Every particle of his body is useful to man. The skin and 

 bones make excellent glue. The tongue and swim-bladder 

 are rare delicacies when well cooked, and have also been 

 used as raw material in the manufacture of isinglass. The 

 refined cod-liver oil is among the most sterling remedies 

 yet devised for man's bodily weakness, which so often leads 

 to deadly phthisis. 1 The refuse oil may be employed for 

 tanning purposes; the offal is very valuable manure. In 

 Norway and Iceland, the dried heads have been largely used 

 as food for cattle. The roe is an excellent bait, and forms 

 a notable part of the Norwegian annual export. On 

 Arctic shores the well-dried bones, for lack of other material, 

 have been used for fuel. For curing purposes, the cod is 

 unsurpassed. Belonging to the Anacanthini, or spineless 

 fish, he can be rapidly deprived of bone and entrails without 

 danger to the fisherman's hands. 



A fresh codfish weighing 6.6 pounds contains as much as 

 5.4 pounds of water. When well cured, it will weigh 2.2 

 pounds, of which 16.5 ounces is nutritive matter, 4.5 ounces 

 is salt, and 12.5 ounces is water. Compared with fresh 

 beef, the nutritive value of the dried cod is as 9 to 10, and 

 the cost is less than one-half that of beef at average prices. 

 It is said that a Newfoundland fish contains more nutriment 



1 Four hundred Lofoten cod give a barrel of oil, but it takes twice 

 as many to give a barrel of the refined, medicinal oil. The product 

 rotted out is called cod oil; that for drinking, cod-liver oil. About 

 thirty-six hundred livers of Labrador cod go to the barrel of twenty- 

 five gallons. 



