202 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



A Nova Scotia coin or bank-token has upon it the figure of a Codfish. Upon the obverse is a 

 plow with the legend "Speed the Plough," upon the reverse a salted Codfish with the words, 

 "Success to the Fisheries." 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE COD. Tue Codfish is found in the North Atlantic, in the North 

 Pacific, and in the Polar Ocean, its range extending far beyond the Arctic Circle. It seems 

 unnecessary to enumerate all the localities in which it has been observed, for its geographical 

 range may be defined with sufficient accuracy and by a much more comprehensive statement: In the 

 Western Atlantic the species occurs in the winter in considerable abundance as far south as the 

 mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, latitude 37, and stragglers have been observed about Ocracoke 

 Inlet. 1 The southern limit of this species may safely be considered to be Cape Hatteras, in latitude 

 35 10'. Along the coast of the Middle States, New England, and British North America, and 

 upon all the off-shore banks of this region, Cod are found usually in great abundance, daring 

 part of the year at least. They have been observed also in the Gulf of Boothia, latitude 70 io 

 75, and in the southeastern part of Baffin's Land to the northward of Cumberland Sound, and it 

 is more than probable that they occur in the waters of the Arctic Sea to the north of the American 

 continent, or away round to Bering Straits. 2 



The Cod has been observed on the western coast of Greenland. In the North Atlantic the 

 range of the species extends to Iceland and Spitzbergen, latitude 80; along the arctic coast of 

 Europe, as far as Eastern Finmark, and probably round to Siberia; while southward it ranges at 

 least to Brittany. Its southern limit is probably near the Bay of Biscay, latitude 40, although 

 Yarrell states that it is found south to Gibraltar. It does not enter the Mediterranean, but pene- 

 trates into the Baltic to the coast of Western Russia. Its distribution in the North Pacific is not 

 so well understood, though it appears to occur in the same abundance on all the off-shore banks of 

 this region, and also close to the coasts to the north of the Straits of Fuca. According to Jordan, 

 there is said to be a cod bank outside of the mouth of the Columbia, but the species at present is 

 of no economic importance south of Alaska. A full discussion of the Alaskan Codfish is given 

 below by Dr. Bean in the chapter on THE ALASKA COD-FISHERY. 



The Cod enters fresh water upon occasion. 3 It is found, according to Canadian authors, well 

 up the estuary of the Saint Lawrence, though how far up is not definitely stated, probably not 

 beyond the limits of brackish water. Dr. C. C. Abbott records that on the 23d or 24th of January, 

 1876, a healthy, strong, active Codfish, weighing nearly four pounds, was taken in a draw-net in 

 the Delaware River near Trenton, New Jersey; the stomach of the fish showed that it had been in 

 river-water several days. Many of them had been taken about Philadelphia between 1856 and 

 1869. 4 



Mr. George R. Smith, of Millbridge, Maine, states that Cod are found all along the coast, even 

 entering brackish water at the mouths of rivers. 



Mr. Wilson M. Albee, of Mohegan, Maine, affirms that Cod occur in all places along the coast 

 of that region, even in brackish water. 



Mr. A. T. Gamage, of Damariscotta, Maine, says : " There is not a place of any extent on the 

 coast of Maine and seaward where Cod are not found. They occur from the edge of the breakers 



1 The mackerel schooner " Relenter," of Gloucester, April 5, 1880, caught, on one hand-line, some 600 pounds of 

 large Cod, with mackerel bait, in twenty fathoms of water, when about eight miles off Cape Charles. A. H. CLARK. 



3 RICHARDSON : Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 243. 



'"Forest and Stream," December 25, 1873, contains the following astounding statement, which, of course, is 

 entirely unworthy of credence: "Three Codfish, weighing six pounds each, were caught in the Saint John's River, 

 Florida, near Palatka, last week; the first of the kind ever caught in Southern waters. Tho ' Herald,' says Captain 

 Vogel, of the steamer 'Dictator,' pronounced them genuine Codfish." 



4 American Naturalist, iv.p. 116. 



