CAPyAIN MAE'S EXt'ERIMENTAL CEUISE. 211 



caught on hooks fastened to the sounding-lead, which was thrown over while the vessel was in 

 motion. 



The remarks made in the previous section regarding the times at which Cod were present and 

 Absent on different parts of the coast should be understood as expressing the facts only in a general 

 way. It is undoubtedly true that Cod may be found in greater or less numbers within reach of 

 the land from Block Island to Newfoundland, and perhaps to Labrador, at all seasons of the year. 

 South of Block Island, Codfish are very rarely noticed in summer, even in the deepest water 

 frequented by the fishermen, though a few remain on the grounds in the vicinity of the Islands 

 during the whole summer. 



In the waters from Cape Cod to Cape Ann, and perhaps a little farther to the north, we find 

 the district in which the bathic migrations of the Codfish are least apparent, the periodical changes 

 in depth being but slight from winter to summer — the fish being within easy reach of the fishermen 

 at all seasons of the year. Even here, however, there is a great increment in their numbers in 

 winter. 



The statements which have been made regarding the periodical movements of the Cod I do 

 not by any means consider satisfactory or final. These movements are the results of many 

 influences, and no one yet understands how much weight to attach to the relative importance 

 of these three influences, i. e., (1) the direct effect of temperature upon the fish themselves ; (2) 

 the abundance of food, as affected by temperature and other causes; and (3) the direct relations 

 between temperature and the reproductive habits of the fish. There is no more difficult problem 

 in ichthyological science. 



" The Codfish sometimes make long journeys from one bank to another, and, indeed, from one 

 region to a very distant one. It is, of course, nearly impossible to trace their movements at such 

 times, and one can usually only guess at the place from whence they come or the distance traveled. 



" During the winter of 1877-'78 an unusually large school visited the coast of the United 

 States. At this time Cod were more plenty along the shores of New England than for many years. 

 Among the fish captured at Cape Ann and other points were quite a number with peculiar hooks 

 in their mouths. These hooks gave a clew to the movements of the fish, for thej' differed from any 

 in use by the American fishermen, and proved identical with those used by French trawl-fishermen 

 on the Grand Banks, and indicated that the fish must at some time have been in that locality, as 

 the hooks probably came from no other place. If the above be granted as proven, the fish must 

 have traveled a distance of five to eight hundred miles at least, and, as a portion of the school 

 continued well to the southward, some individuals must have journeyed much farther. 



"In moving from one bank to another, where the intervening depth is much greater, it seems 

 probable that, instead of following the bottom, they swim in a horizontal plane, following a stratum 

 of nearly uniform density and temperature. The fishermen of Cape Ann have often caught them 

 with seventy to eighty fathoms of line, between Brown's and George's Banks, where the sounding- 

 line indicated a much greater depth. The finding of pebbles and small stones in their stomachs is 

 not an uncommon occurrence. The fisherm en regard these as an unfailing sign that the fish have 

 either just arrived or are about to leave the bank. These stones may play no small part in adjust- 

 ing the specific gravity of the fish to that of the stratum of water in which they are to move. 



" There seems to be a tendency for the large fish to remain in deeper water or nearer the 

 bottom than the small; and usually, beyond a certain depth, the deeper one fishes the larger the fish. 

 Formerly, in hand-lining from deck on the banks, the vessels often anchored in eighty or even 

 ninety fathoms, and the catch averaged over two-thirds large; but in hand-lining from dories 

 they seldom fish in over fifty and usually less than thirty-five fathoms, as they find it difficult to 



