THE COU FISHERY OF ALASKA. 199 



be proven to be only a matter of individual variation. The U. S. Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, with a view to investigating the fisheries and fish of Alaska, 

 sent the writer to that Territory to collect specimens and statistics during the summer of 1880. In 

 this way an opportunity was gained for comparing the Alaskan cod directly with that of New 

 England and of Europe, and for determining beyond a doubt that the commercial cod of both oceans 

 is the Gadus morrhua of Linnaeus. I have not seen fresh specimens from the Okhotsk, but there 

 is no probability that it is different from the Alaskan. It is a matter of daily experience to find 

 long-headed and short-headed cod in the same school off the New England coast or wherever the 

 species occurs, as the length of the head is one of the most variable characters. 1 have just read 

 in the Zoological Eecord for 1879 (Vol. XVI, published in 1881) the following sentence : " Day re- 

 cords and notices a fish captured at the mouth of the Thames, and referred to Gadus macrocephalus 

 Tilesius, probably Yarrell's ' Lord Fish,' and considered to be distinct from G. vulgaris." This 

 agrees with my own idea of the macrocephalus form of cod. You can find it in almost any large 

 school of the common species. A series of cod illustrating the great amount of variation in this 

 respect has lately been received from Alaska by the U. S. National Museum. 



Golden cod, red cod, and other algae forms are as well known at Kodiak and the Shumagins 

 as they are around Cape Cod and Cape Ann. Even the beautiful lemon yellow fish, which 

 occasionally are found in the Ipswich Bay schools, are duplicated in Alaskan waters. Nor does 

 the similarity between the commercial cod of the two oceans end with external characters which 

 are taken into account in determining specific relationship, for we find a wonderful resemblance 

 in their habits and food. Thus, the shore fish about the islands make their appearance in schools 

 similar to ours and similarly named : First, the "herring school;" next, the "lant school;" then 

 the "capelin school," followed by the "squid school" and the "winter school." Besides these 

 there is an abundance of Bank fish, which are larger than any of the schools here named. All of 

 the food-fish of the cod here indicated are exceedingly abundant. The herring is not identical 

 with the common sea herring of the Atlantic (Clvpea harengus), but it is very closely related to it, 

 and the differences which separate the two species are very slight. The commonest lant is the 

 same as the most abundant one of our New England species, and the capelin is identical with our 

 Eastern one. The squid or cuttle-fish is Octopus punctatus of Gabb a species which reaches a 

 large size and forms one of the preferred baits for cod. 



The cod come on the rocks in 25 to 30 fathoms about Kodiak, to spawn, in November and 

 December, just as they do in the Atlantic, and these spawning fish, like their Eastern relatives, 

 will sometimes lie perfectly still on the bottom and refuse to take the hook though it hangs 

 temptingly in front of their noses. Young cod swarm near the shores, precisely as they were 

 observed to do in Gloucester Harbor after the experiments of the U. S. Fish Commission with 

 artificial propagation. On the 13th of July, 1880, our seine took young cod at Saint Paul, Kodiak 

 Island. We dredged numbers of them near our anchorage at Belkoffsky, on the peninsula of 

 Aliaska, July 23, 1880, averaging 1J inches in length. On the following day young cod of the 

 same size were found in the stomach of a large one of the same species caught near Oleny Island 

 in 7 fathoms of water. On the 1st of October, in the harbor of Chernoffsky, Unalashka Island, the 

 cod fry were very abundant, and some of them had reached a length of 3 inches or more. At 

 Iliuliuk, on the north end of the same island, young cod of the same length were seined at various 

 times from October 6 to 18. They fairly swarmed around the wharves, eagerly biting at anything 

 in the form of bait and readily fastening themselves on hooks intended for much larger fish. 



The resemblance between the Atlantic and Pacific cod-fishing grounds is strengthened by 

 the presence in Pacific waters of a genuine pollock not the fierce, cod-devouring tyrant of the 



