Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-08-05
THE COD.
He Thrivcs I'm Cold Water on Caplfn,
Herring and Saufd.

Herring and Squfd.
[Newfoundland Letter TO the New York TrIb-
une.
Many people, I am sure, will be curious
TO know why the Goldfish inhabits the wa
ters around Newfoundland rather than
those in other laiitudes. The answer
aptly illustrates the operations of Natures
great law of compensation. The Arctic
regions, bleak and desolate as they are for
the purpose of human habiiation, furnish
to all the deep-sea commercial fishes their
natural and agreeable home. The Arctic
current, rushing southward from the
SpitZbergen seas along the coast of Labra-
dor, Newfoundland. Canada and the
United States until il is dissilated by the
warm waters of the Gulf Stream. is dense
ly crowded with marine life. each variety
Of which has some relation with every
other. In the polar seas immense areas IF
what might be called colOred water are
! constantly observed. This color is con-
| tributed by organic life. The sea is COW
erred by a sort of living slime This is
brought down by the enormous squadrons
of polar ice which hoats southwaTd in the
Artic current, and it gives sustenance to
the millions of minute crIlstaceans which
inhabit the northern seas. These in their
turn become the food of the small sheIlfish
upon which live the caplin, squid and her
ring, and these, finally, become the prey
of the mighty and greedy cod
The cod is king wherever he lives He
| is a swift, fierce, powerful fish. OF all the
commercial fishes, he is incomparably the
most useful. No part Of him is without
| function II the service of man. His head,
bones and intestines are used in the man.
ufacture of a rich fertilizing compost.
| lsinglass is made from his swimming blad-
/ der. The roe is exported as bait for the
| French sardine fishery. The liver is fa-
| nous for the great curative oil that Is ex-
tracted from it, and the rest of the cod is
pure flesh. His home in the waters of the
| northern and western Atlantic extends
over about two hundred fifty square miles
and along a coast-line from Labrador Be-
Cape Hatsras, whichEn all it's sinuosifs.zszi Ia
I as0u; sixty t.rToe hundi,d Eniiss long. OF
this vast hunt oyer-fw0 hundred Thousand
| square mites in area and over five Thousand
! miles in lateral extent appertain TO the
1 British possessions. The Temperature of
the waters within which he keeps him.
self does not greatly vary from thirfy-nine
degrees to forty-two.
The old theory that the cod is a migra-
| tory fish, though il is still cherished among
the fishermen, has been conclusively dis
proved. The range of his movements is
not wide, and Is governed by three things
the spawning instinct, the food supply
and the temperature of the water The
law of his being moves him to return TO
the place of his own birth for reproduc-
tive ends, and the habits which this in
wolves have gradually resulted, in the nat
ural processes of evolution, in the creation
of slight differences, which may almost be
said to mark species. Some fishermen are
SO familiar with these that they can take a
cod ON the banks and tell the very harbor
he was born in. The spawning, is done at
no great distance from the shUDe, this be-
ing one of the purposes which bring all
the fishes of the Labrador current inshore
during the first weeks of June. The spawn
| is cast free into the sea. where it floats
near the surface, going through all the
processes of development in about sixteen
days. Ii leaves the shallow water when
six months old, but it continues to be an
inshore fish until it is fully grown This
is accomplished with the completion of its
fourth year. and then it makes its home in
the deep waters of the Grand Bank. 1t is
quite conclusively settled that the only diff
2 ference between the cod of the shore and
the cod of the banks is difference of age
The older fish Is much the finer commerci-
ally, and therefore the bank fishery,
Systematically pursued, is the more profit
able