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LOFODEN  NORWEGIAN  COD-LIVER  OIL. 
Thirty-six  millions  of  fish  are  annually  caught,  dried  and 
salted  at  Newfoundland,  Iceland,  Norway  and  Sweden ;  these, 
under  the  name  of  stock-fish,  are  exported  to  all  parts  of  the 
wrorld.  Let  it  be  allowed  that  half  as  many  more  are  sent  to 
market  when  fresh,  this  will  give  a  total  of  54,000,000,  a  num- 
that  would  appear  to  imperil  the  duration  and  very  existence  of 
the  species.  But  the  fecundity  of  this  fish  is  so  great  that 
9,000,000  of  eggs  have  been  found  in  the  roe  of  one  female. 
Hence,  six  female  cod  would,  under  favorable  circumstances, 
supply  to  the  whole  human  family,  annually,  their  present  de- 
mand for  this  important  article  of  food.  Cod-fish  would  soon 
fill  the  northern  seas  and  become  as  multitudinous  as  the  sands 
beneath  them,  if  other  and  more  effective  agencies  than  those  of 
man  were  not  constantly  at  work  to  keep  their  numbers  in  sub- 
jection. 
The  information  now  incidentally  given  relating  to  the  propa- 
gation of  the  cod,  the  deposit  of  its  ova,  and  the  security  of  the 
young  fry  is,  though  limited,  an  important  addition  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  natural  habits  of  this  fish  ;  should  further 
observations  confirm  the  opinion  held  by  practical  men  on  the 
spot,  then  it  will  appear  that  Lofoden  is  the  natural  nursery  for 
these  immense  shoals  of  cod  that  swarm  the  northern  seas.  Of 
course,  cod  ova  may  be  deposited  and  hatched  on  many  coasts, 
our  own  included,  but  nowhere  on  the  same  scale  and  with  the 
same  great  results  as  at  Lofoden.  Collateral  evidence  in  support 
of  this  view  is  furnished  from  Finmark,  where,  after  the  Lofoden 
season  is  over,  cod-fish  and  the  Gracilis  virens  are  found  associa- 
ting together  in  equal  numbers.  Now,  the  Gadus  virens  is  the 
young  of  the  Gadus  carbonarius,  these  being  two  names  given  to 
the  same  fish  at  different  periods  of  growth ;  young  cod  present- 
ing no  marked  characteristics  whereby  they  essentially  differ 
from  the  mature  fish,  have  not  a  separate  name  ;  but  the  fact  of 
these  two  species,  the  Gadus  morrhua  and  Gadus  virens,  being 
found  together  in  large  shoals,  and  one  of  them  young,  renders 
it  probable  that  the  other  is  young  also.  Again,  we  know  that 
the  proper  season  of  the  year  for  the  cod  to  spawn  is  the  month 
of  February ;  and  this  supports  the  view  taken,  that  the  chief 
object  of  the  cod  in  visiting  the  Lofoden  Islands  in  January  is 
for  the  purpose  of  depositing  their  ova. 
