50 
COD. 
have been informed by an intelligent in^n who for several 
years had been employed in the fishery on the banks of 
Newfoundland, that such was not thought to be the case in 
that part of the world 5 but that, when the fish there were 
found to have their stomachs filled with crabs, although the 
fish were numerous, large, and appeared to be well fed, it 
was the usual practise for the ships to change then tjuaiteis in 
search of others. 
The Cod sheds its roe in December and January, and as 
the grains are increasing in size the fish is in the best con- 
dition for the table; but its excellence has fallen back by the 
time the roe is ready to be shed, and after spawning this fish 
becomes emaciated and worthless. Indeed there is no fish, 
except perhaps the Salmon, that offers so great a contrast to 
itself from the time of its highest perfection to the worst, 
which is presently after spawning, and from which it is not 
speedily restored. 
The Cod is one of the most prolific of fishes, as may be 
supposed when we call to mind the vast numbers which are 
caught at the principal fishing stations through a long succession 
of years, where one man in Newfoundland has caught five 
hundred and fifty-two in a day, and upwards of fifteen thousand 
in a voyage. Ten thousand Codfishes were reckoned a proper- 
yearly capture for a man. The fact is well borne out by an 
examination of the multitude of grains of spawn which have 
been counted in the mass of the ovaries. In a fish which 
weighed twenty-one pounds, the roc weighed eleven pounds, 
or more than half of the whole bulk; but in another which 
weighed thirty pounds the roe weighed only four pounds and 
a quarter; and yet in this last instance the following proportion 
was fairly calculated. In repeated trials, two grains in weight 
of this roe gave the number of ova four hundred and twenty- 
three; so that, making a full allowance for the membrane 
mingled with them, the number of living individuals which 
might have been ])roduced from this fish, in which the roe 
was of less than usual proportionate weight, was little less 
than seven millions. That very many of these eggs never 
reach a useful size is highly probable, and yet it is to be 
remarked that a young Cod is more rarely found in the 
stomach of other fishes than the generality of its fellow natives 
of the deep. 
