THE COD FAMILY AND THE SAND-EELS 247 



while the cod's more natural food includes all manner of fishes, 

 not excepting young sharks, as well as crustaceans and sea- 

 anemones. Among it most dreaded enemies, on the other 

 hand, are sharks and seals. Cod are also trawled, generally 

 during the period preceding the spawning-season, when they 

 are not taking a bait. This fish is particularly subject to the 

 attacks of sea-lice and other parasites. The air-bladder of the 

 cod is one of the chief sources of isinglass, though sharks' fins 

 and other substitutes have recently been utilised. 



The smaller cod of the Baltic, called " Dorsch," are 

 larger by far than our codling stage, and doubtless form a 

 distinct race. The writer has caught them at Christmas 

 time off Doberan weighing 3 or 4 lb. apiece ; and the 

 German fishermen invariably called them " Dorsch," and 

 not " Kabeljau," the name applied to larger cod of the North 

 Sea. Giinther gives " Dorsch " as the German name for 

 young cod only, and doubtless in the general way he is correct ; 

 but the use of the word as applied to full-grown, mature fish 

 on the Baltic coast (at Warnemllnde) seems worth recording. 

 The cod grows to a length of over 4 ft. and a weight of 

 at least 50 lb. Three other (Arctic) cods are described in 

 Scandinavian Fishes, but none of these occur in our seas. 



The spawning of the cod takes place on our coasts in 

 early spring, between January and May. Dr. Wemyss Fulton 

 is of opinion that the females are in the majority, the male 

 being very slightly the larger. The egg, which floats, has a 

 diameter of rather over -^ in. According to Professor 

 Mcintosh, the embryo hatches in April on the eighth or tenth 

 day after fertilisation, and Cunningham allows twelve or 

 thirteen days at 45° and twenty at 38°. 



The larva, when first hatched out, is, according to Dannevig, 

 only a little over -j^ in., while another estimate gives it as rather 

 less than \ in., a considerable difference. It is recognised by two 

 dark bands on the body, and other two on the tail. Mcintosh 

 and Masterman give coloured figures of larval and post-larval 



