2798 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



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 number of species of the cod, some characterized by certain 

 peculiarities and some by others. The cod in the North Pacific is differ- 

 ent from tha*t in the North Atlantic. Both are, however, codfish, and 

 no one could mistake them for 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 St. Lawrence, the 

 Labrador and Newfoundland, on the Grand Bank, and many other 

 places. The European species, although by some considered distinct 

 from ours, probably have a geographical range equally extensive. I be- 

 lieve they are not in Spitsbergen. 



Q. What is the most important locality? A. Probably the most im- 

 portant 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 of fish are taken in three 

 mouths by some twenty-five thousand men. The Dogger Bank, in the 

 North Sea, is another European locality. In America the most exten- 

 sive stores of cod are found, I suppose, on the Grand Banks and the 

 Georges. They are found, perhaps, also on the great banks off the coast 

 of Labrador, twenty or thirty miles off the coast, extending for hundreds 

 of miles. 



Q. Now give the Commission some notion of the abundance of cod- 

 fish. A. Well, I have covered that point in my reply to the previous 

 question. It is found in the greater part of those regions at some por- 

 tion of the year. It is usually more abundant 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 I 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 the 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 

 some other cause. In the south of New England, south of Cape Cod, 

 the fishing is largely off shore. That is to say, the fish are off the coast 

 in the cooler water in the summer, and as the temperature falls ap- 

 proaching autumn, and the shores are cooled down to a certain degree, 

 they come in and are taken within a few miles of the coast. In the 

 northern waters, as far as I can understand from the writings of Prof. 

 Hind, the fish generally go off shore in the winter-time, excepting on 

 the south side of Newfoundland, where, I am informed, they maintain 

 their stay, or else come in in large abundance ; but in the Bay of Fuudy, 

 on the coast of Maine, and still further north, they don't remain as close 

 to the shore in winter as in other seasons. 



Q. Take them as a whole, then, they are a deep-sea fish. I don't 

 mean the deep sea as distinguished from the Banks ? A. An outside 

 fish ? Well, they are to a very considerable extent. The largest catches 

 are taken off shore, and what are taken inshore are in specially favored 

 localities, perhaps on the coast of Labrador, and possibly off Newfound- 



