THE COD AND COD-FISHERY 285 



individuals, the title "King of the food-fishes" is justified, 

 even against the herring. 



Each female lays from three to nine million eggs each year, 

 generally in the months from February to May, inclusive. 

 The fish spawns rapidly. As the females are " ripening," 

 the roe or ovaries are so large that they fill the mother's 

 body and actually tend to prevent her feeding. So far as 

 it goes, this is a fortunate protection for the species, since, 

 during this important period in her life, the female is thereby 

 less liable to be caught on a bait. The males seem to out- 

 number the females considerably, but the balance is main- 

 tained for reproduction- by the fact that the roe of the aver- 

 age female is two or three times as heavy as the milt of the 

 average male. 



Though the eggs contain no oil globule, they float in the 

 water. The milt also floats, and as its units are present 

 in inestimable quantities, the fertilization of the eggs, 

 which takes place in the open water, is insured. It is made 

 yet more certain by the fact that during the spawning season 

 the cod aggregate into immense shoals in shallow water. 

 This free floating is a great protection to the eggs, as they 

 cannot be browsed up in bulk off the bottom, like the spawn 

 of herring, which adheres in masses to the rocks and gravels. 

 The young cod grows rapidly, and in twelve months is about 

 sixteen inches long, and in twenty-four months is a mature 

 fish about twenty-four inches long. As a rule, however, it 

 will not breed until it is three years old. Its youth is largely 

 spent in eating its own brothers and sisters and cousins, 

 and also in escaping being eaten. The career of any indi- 

 vidual is apt to be a checkered one, and it is only one out of 

 many that succeeds "in realizing any aspirations he may 



