206 THE COMMON COD. 



sale to a brother who dealt in provisions ; and it is known that 

 out of the various transactions which thus arose, individually 

 small though they must have been, the two made, in the course 

 of time, a handsome profit. The fame of the smoked fish rapidly 

 spread, so that cargoes used to be brought by steamboat, and 

 Pinnans are now carried by railway to all parts of the' country 

 with great celerity, the demand being so great as to induce men 

 to foist on the public any kind of cure they can manage to 

 accomplish; indeed smoked codlings are extensively sold for 

 Fuman haddocks. Genuine smoked haddocks of the Moray 

 Firth or Aberdeen cure can seldom now be had, even iu Edin- 

 burgh, under the price of sixpence per pound weight. 



The common cod {Morrh^a vulgaris) is, as the name implies, 

 one of our best-known fishes, and it was at one time very plenti- 

 ful and cheap. It is found in the deep waters of all our 

 northern seas, but has never been known in the Mediterranean. 

 It has been largely captured on the coasts of Scotland, and, as 

 is elsewhere mentioned, it occtirs in profusion on the shores of 

 Newfoundland, where its plentifulness led to a great fishery 

 being established. The cod is extremely voracious, and eats up 

 most greedily the smaller inhabitants of the seas ; it grows to a 

 large size, and is very prolific in the perpetuation of its kind. 

 A cod-roe has more than once been found to be half the gross 

 weight of the fish, and specimens of the female have been 

 caught with upwards of three millions of eggs ; but of course it 

 cannot be expected that in the great waste of waters all the ova 

 wUl be fertilised, or that any but a small percentage of the fish 

 can ever arrive at maturity. This fish spawns in mid-winter, 

 but there are no very reliable data to show when it becomes re- 

 productive. My own opinion has already been expressed that 

 the cod is an animal of slow growth, and I would venture to say 

 that it is at least three years old before it is endowed with any 

 breeding power. I may call attention here to one of the causes 

 that must tend to render the fish scarce. As if the natural 

 enemies of the young fish were not sufficient to aid in its extir- 

 pation, and the loss of the ova from causes over which man has 

 no control not enough in the way of destruction, there is a 

 commerce in cod-roe, and enormous quantities of it, as I have 

 mentioned in the preceding chapter, are used in France as 

 ground-bait for the sardine fishery ! The roe of this fish is also 

 frequently made use of at table ; a cod-roe of from two to four 

 pounds in weight can unfortunately be bought for a mere trifle, 



