Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-02-15
Curious Facts About the Cod.

Fears are sometimes expressed that
Canada's and Newfoundland's great sta
pie, the cod fisheries, Will, in time, be-
come exhausted, and the enormous fish
colonies around the shores will, by over
fishing, become so reduced in numbers
that the tolls of the fishermen will cease
to be remunerative. We believe there is
no foundation, in fact, for such an opin-
ion. The quantity of fish taken out of
the sea bv the hands of men is so small,
in proportion to the whole or to the num-
bers destroyed by their natural enemies,
that the abstraction would make little or
no impression on the immense shoals in
the ocean. no.
The fecundity of fish is enormous, and
Is natures compensation for the immense
waste of life through the cannibal pro-
pensities of the fish-world. In the world
of waters it would seem as If shoals of
one species Of fish had no other object in
life but to chase another with view to
eat them, but in proportion to the de-
structiOn thus carried on is the power
of reproduction with which they are en-
dowed.
Perhaps 1000 900 or 10000, 600 of cod
fish are taken from the sea annually by
the fishers of the sea around the shores of
Newfoundland. But what is this qua"ti-
ty when we consider that the cod y -
$500, 600 of eggs each season, and that
even 5000, 900 have been found In the roe
Of single cod Other fish, though not
equaling the cod, are also wonderfully
productive. A herring six or seven
ounces In weight isproyided with about
80 900 Ovaria.
After making all reasonable allowances
for the destruction OF eggs and the young,
IL has been calculated that IN three years
a single pair oi behring's would pf0duef
1bi,000. Button said Chat II pair Of her,
rings were left 10 breed aud multiply I'M
disturbed for u period Of twenty years,
they would yield fish bulk equal to the
whole OF tho globe Oh which We live.
Tho cod far strpasses the herring In f.
| cundity. Nothing can compare with the
prolific power Of flsh In any other species
Of animals, except, perhaps, the white
ant, which produces eggs Mt the rate OF
fifty per minute, and goes on laying for q
| period Of unknown duration. The com
mon domestic bug, against which popu.
lar prejudice Is so strongly pronounced,
has great reproductive powers, as 1t Ii
said to become grandmother In twenty
four hours. 1t Is nothing, however, to
| bnt CoInIhOl HOuse-hy, WhiCh pIOuucts
10,0 600 of eggs in season, or the little
aphides Of the garden, one of which pro
duces 00,000.000 of young.
In the case of one of our cod that yields
3,500,00 of eggs in season, of course,
vast numbers never come to life at all,
either from the want of fructifying power
or from being devoured by enemies. Then
Of the eggs that ripen. it has been calcu-
lated that ninety per cent. of the young
fish perish before they are six months old,
Were 1t not for this destruction Of life
fish would so multiply that it would be
impossible for boat to move in the sea
Fish prey extensively upon each other
indeed, the very element in which they
move is, in a sense, great mass of living
matter, and it doubtless affords, by means
of minute animals. wonderful source Of
supply.-Toronto Herald.