334 
AMERICAN FISHES . 
have been observed about Ocracoke Inlet. The southern limit of this 
species may safely be considered to be Cape Hatteras, in lat. 35 °, 10'. 
Along the coast of the Middle States, New England, and British North 
America, and upon all the off-shore banks of this region, Cod are found 
usually in great abundance during part of the year at least. They have 
been observed also in the Gulf of Boothia, lat. 70° to 75 0 , and in the 
southeastern part of Baffin’s Land to the northward of Cumberland 
Sound, and it is more than probable that they occur in the waters of the 
Arctic Sea to the north of the American continent, or away round to 
Behring’s Straits. 
The Cod has been observed on the Western coast of Greenland. In the 
North Atlantic the range of the species extends to Iceland and Spitzber- 
gen, lat. 8o° ; along the arctic coast of Europe, as far as Eastern Fin- 
mark, and probably round to Siberia; while southward it ranges at least 
to Brittany. Its southern limit is probably near the Bay of Biscay, lat. 
40°, although Yarrell states that it is found south to Gibraltar. It does 
not enter the Mediterranean, but penetrates into the Baltic to the coast of 
Western Russia. Its distribution in the North Pacific is not so well 
understood, though it appears to occur in the same abundance on all the 
off-shore banks of this region, and also close to the coasts to the north of 
the Straits of Fuca. According to Jordan, there is said to be a cod bank 
outside of the mouth of the Columbia, but the species at present is of no 
economic importance south of Alaska. 
The Cod, like most other species which migrate to and from the shore 
instead of northward and southward, is, doubtless, more dependent upon 
temperature conditions than fishes like the menhaden and the blue-fish, 
and, Mr. Earll has suggested, the abundance of food doubtless has much 
more influence upon its movements. We cannot doubt, however, that 
the Cod moves periodically to and from the shore as a direct result of 
the seasonal changes of temperature. The Cod prefers a temperature of 
from 35 0 to 42 0 Fahr., approximately, and this it secures in a temperate 
climate, such as that of Southern New England, by remaining on the off¬ 
shore banks in fifteen to thirty fathoms of water, coming into the shallows 
in winter. On the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and 
Eastern Maine, moving to and from the shore from deeper to shallower 
water and vice vei'sa to secure at different seasons of the year a tempera¬ 
ture environment best suited to their needs, they are near the shore in 
summer and in deep water in winter. 
