LXXIV REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF PISH AND FISHERIES. 

 a. The Codfish {Gadus morrhua). 



The Fulton Marlcet (New Yorh City) Station. — As referred to in previous ' 

 reports, a renewed effort was made to utilize the live spawning codfish 

 brought in during the winter season to Fulton Market, the necessary 

 facilities in the way of a station being furnished by Mr. E. G. Blackford, 

 fish commissioner of Kew York, The work was begun on January 8, 

 and by the 11th 4,000,000 sound eggs were obtained. A reason- 

 able number of these were hatched out and deposited, but further op- 

 erations for the winter were prevented in consequence of the destruc 

 tion of the adult fish by slush ice in the East River. Mr. S. I. Kimball, 

 Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service, on application of the Com- 

 mission, kindly ordered the crew of the life-saving stations on Long 

 Island to assist in collecting eggs of cod should they be procurable. 



On a previous page reference has been made to the continued life 

 history of the school of cod hatched out at Gloucester in 1878-'79. It 

 is not improbable that the fish first hatched out have reproduced their 

 kind, as young gray cod of two sizes are now taken during the summer 

 on the coast. In 1882 they were abundant off Portsmouth, N. H., 

 the fishermen being satisfied that they were the result of the work of 

 the Commission. During the summer of 1883 numbers were taken in 

 the mouth of Gloucester Harbor, one man capturing 70 or 80 pounds 

 on a mackerel line, the fish weighing from half a pound to 2^ pounds 

 each. It would seem from these statements that not only have these fish 

 been successfully planted, but also that they have changed their habits 

 and are likely to continue to be an inshore summer fish, which is of 

 course a desideratum of very great importance. A note given below 

 from Mr. E. S. Tarr, an intelligent naturalist and resident of Glouces- 

 ter, contains further information on this subject.* 



* While in Gloucester recently I made Bome inquiries in regard to the report that 

 small cod of the species Gadus morrhua were very abundant in the harbor. Although 

 I was there in the wrong season, still I think that I gained enough information 

 to establish beyond a doubt that small cod, some as large as 14 inches in length, be- 

 longing to G. morrhua, are extremely abundant at Gloucester ; and as these belong 

 to the species which is at present almost entirely deep-sea, it seems evident that we 

 must look to some other causes than natural ones to explain the appearance of such 

 great numbers in so small an area, for as far as I can find out only one other school 

 has been seen along the New England coast in shallow water. I talked with several 

 fishermen, and they all reported the abundance of the "silver-gray cod," which could 

 not be distinguished by them from the deep-sea cod. The most intelligent and ob- 

 serving of all with whom I spoke was Mr. Edwin F. Parsons, of East Gloucester, who 

 expressed a willingness to correspond with you upon the subject, and also to make 

 preparations of specimens, under your direction, if you desired it. 



He told me that in the spring and summer for the two past seasons, while fishing 

 for bait for his lobster traps, he took great numbers just outside of Ten-Pound Island. 

 Their abundance dwindled down until in February they were least abundant. Last 

 spring the largest fish weighed 4 or 5 pounds, and often in a day 100 pounds would 

 be the result of his catch. He did not fish especially for these, but simply for bait 

 for his traps. The cod he would sell, while the other fish would serve his piarpose. 

 He thinks that he can see three generations, the largest weighing 5 pounds and the 



