HIND ON MIGEATIONS OF THE COD. 209 



"The table shows also that for a period of about forty days the cod fishery goes on 

 simultaneously during August and September, throughout the length of a coast line extending 

 from latitude 47° to latitude 50° 30', or more than seven hundred statute miles in one continuous 

 line. Hence it appears that the migrations of the schools of this fish are merely from deep-water 

 winter feeding grounds to the nearest coast spawning grounds, and from the coast to the nearest 

 deep-water feeding grounds again. The coast migrations during the summer months appear to 

 be of equally limited extent, and schools of Cod frequenting any particular coast may be said to 

 be indigenous to it. 



"On the Labrador, especially in well-known deep bays, such as Hamilton Inlet, the coast 

 movements of the fish appear to be very regular, and determined to a large degree by the tidal 

 currents. The caplin generally precede the Cod by a few days, and these fish are known to 

 approach the coast and enter sandy coves for the purpose of spawning. The same meteorological 

 influence which guides the movements of the Cod affects also the periods of spawning of the 

 caplin. I saw numerous schools of this fish spawning in Trinity Bay on the 2.7th Junej a month 

 later they spawn in Kypokok Bay, and still later further to the north." ^ 



I have before me the statements of nearly a hundred observers which I hope to discuss more 

 fully at some future time. These opinions confirm, in a very striking manner, the generalization 

 just stated. They show that while on the coast of Maine the God leave the immediate shores in 

 the autumn, not reappearing in any considerable numbers until late in the following spring, south of 

 Cape Cod they apijroach the shore only in the winter season, while during the summer they 

 keep out in the cold Labrador current, which extends south to the inside of the current of the 

 Gulf Stream. In Vineyard Sound, Buzzard's Bay, and off the shores of Connecticut, New York, 

 Delaware, New Jersey, and even in Eastern Virginia, there is excellent cod fishing during the 

 winter season. "A wise provision of nature," remarks Professor Baird, "in the absence of so 

 many species that supply food during the summer." 



It will probably be found that fishing in deeper water in these same regions in summer will 

 bring to light an abundance of Cod. 



"In European seas," writes Professor Hind, "the depth at which the fishermen look for Cod 

 vari3s with the season of the year, and is a point toward which much attention is paid in Norway 

 and England. On the Dogger Bank, the smacks fish at the following depths during the months 

 named : 



Fathoms. 



December 12 to 15 



January 14 to 18 



February 18 to 22 



March 10 to 12" 



From Professor Hind's pen the following paragraphs are also taken : 



" When the coasts of Finmark are thronged with fishermen catching their fares of the ' Lodde,' or 

 Summer Cod, the shores of Northeast Newfoundland and the shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence 

 are alive with fishermen successfully capturing the same variety of fish in British American waters ; 

 and when the Eussian on the Murmanian coast is laying in his winter stock of Cod, and accumu- 

 lating a large overplus for a foreign market, the Newfoundlander and the Labradorian are securing 

 their fares as far as the Mora%'ian Missionary Stations, Okak and Nain. So, also, in the North Sea 

 and on the coast of the British Isles, around the" Faroe Islands, all along the Icelandic shores, on the 

 south coast of Greenland, off Arksut Fiord, away up north to Torske Banks, and down the Atlantic 



'Hind : op. (At., pt. ii, p'. 70. 

 14 P 



