30 
flounder, short-finned flounder, bastard turbot, spine-checked 
turbot, black-tailed sole, black-dotted plaice, and many others which 
are sold as sole in the local markets. 
THE COD. 
The Cod (gadus morrhua), the Cultus Cod (ophiodon elong- 
atus), the skill, or black cod, the red rock-cod, and many other 
varieties of fish which pass under the name of cod, abound in the 
North Pacific and Behring Sea. Authorities differ as to the quality 
of the Pacific cod, some claiming that it is not so fine a food fish 
as its Atlantic brother, and that the air bladder or ‘‘sound”’ is 
much smaller, while others maintain that it is equal in every 
respect to anything caught in Eastern waters. The fact is, that 
the Pacific cod has been overshadowed by the more attractive and 
readily captured salmon, and consequently, the habits, migrations, 
and food qualities of the several varieties of the cod family have 
not been given careful study, and comparatively little is known 
about them. That they abound in great numbers, however, is 
admitted on all hands, and that their killing and curing may be 
made a very important industry is becoming every day more 
manifest. Several causes have served to retard the cod-fishing 
industry on the Pacific Coast, chief of which may be mentioned: 
(1) The want of a home market; (2) the keen competition of 
Eastern producers, and their more advantageous geographical 
position with regard to centres of population, and (3) the 
tendency of capital to seek investment in the more promising 
salmon fisheries. Another difficulty which has stood in the way of 
establishing cod-fishing on an extensive scale on this Coast, is the 
moist climate, which will not permit the curing of the fish in the 
open air. This was formerly held to be a fatal obstacle, but 
mechanical dryers have been invented, which are claimed to cure 
the fish faster, more thoroughly, and cheaper than the old sun and 
air process. Cod fishing on a commercial scale was established on 
the Pacific as early as 1863, the fishermen of that day seeking their 
catch on the coast of Siberia, and marketing it in San Francisco. 
The discovery of the Pacific cod was made in 1857, by Capt. 
Mathew Turner, of the brig “ Trinandra,” 120 tons, who was 
detained by ice for three weeks in Castor Bay, at the head of the 
Gulf of Tartary, while en route from San Francisco to Nicolaevsk, 
on the Amoor River. During their enforced idleness, the crew of 
the “ Trinandra” amused themselves by fishing, and to their 
surprise caught plenty of cod, averaging two feet in length; but 
it was not till 1863 that Capt. Turner turned the knowledge of 
