Like the herring, the cod is a cold-water fish. Extensively abundant 

 in northern Atlantic waters, in which it inhabits certain regions in compact 

 masses, one hardly ever finds it south of the latitude of Brittany. It is un- 

 known in the Mediterranean. 



Like most species of fish, biological necessities of reproduction result 

 each year in important migrations of adult cod. 



Spawning takes place toward the end of winter, generally from January 

 to March, at times varying slightly according to the vicinity where it is ef- 

 fected, at the end of a vast migration in orderly compact concentrations di- 

 rected toward waters less cold than those it normally frequents. In normal 

 years, cod find optimum conditions for reproduction on banks of Newfound- 

 land at depths preferably from 50-100 meters. After spawning they stay 

 there during the spring and early summer because of the abundant food they 

 find; then the inverse migration takes place, this time in dispersed order, 

 toward depths from 100-250 meters and in colder water. The season of fish- 

 ing is when the cod are found thus schooled on the banks. 



There exist, in the North Atlantic, other zones of spawning, the princi- 

 pal ones being the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, the Icelandic Shelf, the continen- 

 tal plateau bordering Norway, the vicinity of Spitzbergen, Bear Island, the 

 Barentz Sea, and the banks of the west coast of Greenland. The cod gather at 

 various times in more or less great quantities, depending on whether they 

 find hydrographic conditions more or less favorable and food more or less 

 abundant. It can happen thus that in certain years they do not appear on cer- 

 tain bottoms where one usually finds them. For the old fishermen of New- 

 foundland and Iceland, who did not possess real scientific knowledge which 

 would permit them, in such case, to find them elsewhere, it was a bad year 

 for the fishery. 



The recent researches of the Danish biologist Johann Schmidt have put 

 to light the existence of four principle races of cod, characterized by differ- 

 ent vertebral counts. 



On the Newfoundland Banks, one finds everywhere the arctic race of cod, 

 which is that which possesses the largest individuals and in smaller propor- 

 tion, the American race of cod, much more numerous on the east coast of 

 Nova Scotia, as well as in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



On the banks, water temperatures from 2° to 4° C. are most propi- 

 tious for great schools. The fish become less common as the temperature 

 rises and they disappear entirely when it attains 8°. 



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