TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31 
extent by the capture of the mother fish, which will sometimes 
take the hook freely. The lost gear attendant upon trawling 
has a bad effect upon the fishery. 
FOOD. 
The food of the cod in the Pacific is as plentiful and as varied 
asinthe Atlantic. Most other fishes of suitable size are liable to suf- 
er from its voracity, while certain species for which it has an espec- 
ial liking are slaughtered in great numbers. There isa wonderful 
abundance of invertebrated animals, such as quid, shrimp, holo- 
thurians, crabs, marine worms, sea-fleas; and, in short, just such 
forms as are well known to every fisherman on the eastern 
grounds. The waters of the Alaskan fishing grounds fairly 
swarm with this kind of life suitable to the wants of the cod. 
The fish which constitute in large measure the food of the cod 
are herring (Clupea mirabilis), capelin (AZallotus villosus), lant (Am- 
modytes), halibut (A/ippoglossus vulgaris), whiting or England hake 
(Pollachius chalcogrammus), sculpins (Hemilepidotus Jordani and 
trachurus, also Cottus polycanthocephalus), and yellow fish or strip- 
ed fish (Pleurogrammus monopterygius). Sometimes young cod are 
swallowed by older ones. I have seen a species of Zifaris from 
a cod stomach on Portlock Bank. The yellow fish is the best 
bait for cod, according to Capt. Anderson and Capt Caton. 
Another food fish of the cod is worthy of mention here, because of 
the interest which attaches to its common name of “Cusk’’(Bathy- 
master signatus)—a species very different indeed from the cusk 
that isso much eaten for cod in the Eastern States. 
Mr. Devine says that sick cod are sometimes seen feeding at 
the surface, and sometimes healthy fish will chase bait up. In 
this way yellow fish will attract cod to the surface, and capelin 
will also. I have counted forty capelin in one cod taken on 
Portlock Bank, July 8th, 1880. 
REPRODUCTION. 
According to Mr. D. C. Bowen, cod about Kodiak come on 
the rocks in twenty-five to thirty fathoms, spawning in Novem- 
ber and December. Capt. H. R. Bowen, of the same island, 
states that cod, full of eggs, are caught in February ; the eggs 
