THE SGHOOLma OF THE CODFISH. 205 



school that has just left the shore, and that they remain on these grounds for a few days or 

 weeks on their way to deeper water." 



I have before me the statements of ninety -four fishermen, most of whom are of tbe opinion 

 that the Cod associate together in schools throughout the entire year; many of them, however, 

 speak of particular schools of very large size which they noticed at particular seasons. Captain 

 Atwood, on the other hand, makes the assertion that the Cod never school, but that they wander 

 independently over the bottom in search of food. 



It seems most reasonable to suppose that tlic Codfish, like most other species which habitually 

 feed on the bottom, are less disposed to wander to^'ether in great bodies from place to place than 

 the surface-swimming fishes which usually feed upou substances or animals which are found col- 

 lected together in one place in great quantity. The Codfisb, being habitually bottom-feeders, find 

 their food, it is probable, with more or less uniformity, over the areas which they frequent, and are 

 ordinarily met with moving about independently. They are most likely to occur in great numbers 

 in places where food is particularly abundant. At certain seasons of the year they are brought 

 together by a common desire for wandering together from place to place in immense bodies, some- 

 times their object being a united attack upon some special kind of food only to be found at that 

 season, and in particular places. The capelin and lant schools, known to the fishermen of 

 Newfoundland, Labrador, and the G-rand Banks, are examples of such association, as also is the 

 herring school observed in the spring in Massachusetts Bay, and the great schools known on 

 the coast of Norway under the name of Liidde-fisk. 



Capt. Epes W. Merchant, of Gloucester, tells me about a remarkable school of Codfish 

 which frequented Massachusetts Bay between the years 1815 and 1830. This was called the 

 "shad school." They continued in the bay from early April until the middle of May. They were 

 caught with alewives and shad for bait. The fishermen were accustomed to get these fish for 

 bait as soon as they began to run. The Cod seemed to be waiting for them. The "shad school" 

 was composed of young, sharp-nosed, bright-eyed school fish of regular size, very different from 

 the ground-tenders or grubbers. 



Professor Baird has made some interesting generalizations concerning the effect upon the 

 abundance of Cod of the decrease in the shad and alewives off the mouths of our rivers 

 caused by over-fishing in inland waters.^ 



Another cause of the assembling of the Codfish together is the reproductive instinct, in obe- 

 dience to which the fish gather together in localities where the temperature and depth of water are 

 suitable for the deposition of eggs. A school of this kind is the so-called " pasture school," already 

 referred to in the quotation from Mr. Earll, and the great schools — the so-called "fish-mountains" — 

 which make their appearance on the coast of Norway in January, February, and March, and which 

 have been so well described by Professor Sars.^ 



The fisheries carried on at this time are called "spawn fisheries" to distinguish them from 

 those which are carried on later in the spring on the coast of Finmark, the object of which is the 

 capture of Codfish following schools of bait. 



"Codfish," continues Mr. Earll, "are gregarious in their habits, going in schools of greater or 

 less size, and are governed in their movements by the presence or absence of food, the spawning 

 instinct, and the temperature of the water. When migrating, the schools are quite dense, though 

 by no means like schools of menhaden or mackerel. But when they reach the feeding ground they 



' Keport United States Commiasion of Fish and Fisheries, pt. ii, 1874, pp. xi-xiv. 



'Report of the "Practical and Scientiiio Investigations of the Cod Fisheries near the Lofoden Islands," made 

 daring the years 1864-69 by S. O. Sars ; translated by H. Jacobson. Keport United States Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries, pt. v, 1879, pp, 565-661. 



