Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-05-05
The Cod.

Besides being the most prolific Of food
fishes, he is large, easily taken and quickly
prepared for market. while his different
parts are utilized as generally as those OF
his land rival hog. Professor Baird says
that besides the muscular parts, the sounds
and roes are used as food, the oil is valuable
for medical and mechanical purpose, the
offal is converted into valuable manure,
the bones make good fuel, while the skins
serve many nations for leather and cloth
ing This fish, like the more prominent Of
his relatives, Is at home only in cold water
the latitude of Cape May being his extreme
southern boundary, while he lives as close
to the pole as he can without risk of being
frozen in. He probably exists farther south
than the line indicated above, but if 50, it
is III cool depths too retired to admit of
successful interviewing. At certain points
off the Massachusetts, coast he finds suiii-
ciently low temperature IN shallow water,
and at these places he is frequently seen
and caught by fisherman. but his fayorite
American haunts are the semi-inclosed
waters of the coast of Canada and adjacent
islands. Fond, however, as he is of very
cold water. there are temperatures which
he will under no circumstances endure,
even though they be but two or three de-
grees removed from the normal. Among
these is the water that comes from melting
salt ice, and slowly sinks to the level which
| its specific gravity entities it. In such
water the cod will not remain; he will not
go through it, even though his dinner be
on the opposite side, the distance very
short, and the cod very hungry. He pre-
fers TO circumnavigate such an inhospitable
region if he has business on the other side,
as fisherman have learned to their own ex-
ceeding profit.
TbeIe are different atirieves of the cod,
and the entire lack of evidence of mixed
blood, and the rarity with which more than
one variety is found in any giving locality,
prove either that the cod is q non-migra-
tory fish, or that he regards the preserva-
ton OF caste as paramount duty. Like
aristocrats everywhere, he is an omnivorous
feeder. The ''dredge" is considered by
naturalists to be the best implement with
which to obtain information upon deep-sea
life; but Professor Baird says that the
stomach Of the cod is the best of all dredges,
for it generally contains morsels Of every
sort Of marine resident within reach. With
high-born contempt of the requirements
of trade, the cod feeds largely upon herring
and mackerel, but he Is partial to crabs,
Holsters; and most other fish. As his diges-
ton Is not equal to the task of assimilaung
these last-named items of the ocean menu,
he slows then away in the eide of hi:
stomach, and when the quantity becomes
! H. Cf
to the method TO which Jonah owed his es
cape from submarine lodgings While moi
migratory by inclination, any failure or de-
teriOraiion OF his habitual larder will cause
him TO remove to the nearest resort of gooC
livers. Ysars ago Goldfish were quite
plentiful off Newburyport, Massachusetts,
but disappeared as the Merimack Rive
was depleted of fish; since the restocking
Of the river, however, with shad and ale
wives, the cod has reappeared at his olC
dining place, gaddening the hearts of thu
fishermen, and gracing the Sunday break
fast table Of the descendants Of the Puri
tans.
The cod resorts to the shore for feeding
purposes; but who that is not cook or
scullion cares always to be in the vicinity
of the dining-room? Naturally he is al
off-shore, deep water fish, for at distance
from the land he Is always sure of findin,
those strata of cold water in which he de
lights. There are times when he will no
leave these, even for food; but the season
in which fresh-water fish revisit the scene
, of their childhood are also the seasons whe
the water is cool inshore. While he
weather remains, with sea-water warm en-
ough to lure human beings into the surf
the cod abhsrs the beach, and takes wha
, food is nearest at hand, preferring, hk
summer dodgers elsewhere, to endure III