CHAPTER VIII.

_THE COD FAMILY._

BY JOHN BICKERDYKE, M.A.

The large and important Cod Family belongs to the order of Spineless Fishes and the group in which both sides of the head are symmetrical. The Common Cod, the Whiting, the Haddock, the Pollack, the Coal-fish, the Hake, the Ling, and the little Rocklings, all belong to this important family, which has one representative in fresh-water, the Burbot, or Eel-pout, found in various rivers in Central and Northern Europe and North America.

Perhaps the most remarkable member of the Cod Family is the CHIASMODUS, which has huge jaws lined with large pointed teeth, and a distensible stomach and abdomen. During the _Challenger_ Expedition a specimen was taken 1,500 fathoms down in the North Atlantic. It had swallowed another fish, a kind of scopelus, more than twice its own size. The stomach of the chiasmodus had swelled to an enormous extent, and had become so thin from distension that the fish inside could be clearly seen through its walls. The scopelus, it is interesting to mention, is a fish brought up sometimes by the dredge from 2,500 fathoms. It occasionally comes to the surface at night, and has phosphorescent spots along its sides, giving out a dim light, which has its uses in the dark depths of the sea.

To come back to the head of the family, the COD is a fairly plentiful fish all around the British and Irish coasts, but appears to be decreasing in some waters as time goes on, owing to the over-trawling of the North Sea. Off the coasts of Norway, in the neighbourhood of the Lofoden Islands, the cod are sometimes so thickly packed in shoals that as the fishermen lower their tackle they can feel the leads hitting the backs of the fishes. Both there and off the Faröe Islands and Iceland it is common practice to fish with a hook bearing a little piece of polished lead on its shank, no other bait being required, owing to the cod being so numerous that food is scarce.

About the commencement of the fifteenth century the English began to go to Iceland for cod, and since the sixteenth century English cod-fishing vessels have visited Newfoundland and other far northern waters, which produce fish superior to English cod. It should be mentioned that the Cod Family is not found to any extent in tropical seas.

While the BURBOT is one of the few species of the group inhabiting fresh-water, and is peculiar in living there permanently, there are instances recorded of POLLACK having ascended from the salt water of the Norwegian fjords into fresh-water lakes, and it is an undoubted fact that many other species of sea-fish can accustom themselves to a residence in fresh-water.

All through the year cod frequent the British coasts; but it is two or three months before the spawning-season, which commences in January or later according to the locality, that they gather in vast shoals and come close inshore. First come the small codling of a pound or so, and as the winter approaches the longshore fish are found gradually to increase in size, until by Christmas-time it is no uncommon thing on the east coast of England and Scotland for fish of from 10 to 20 lbs. to be caught from the beach.

As a rule the eggs of cod float, owing to a little globule of oil which each one contains, but in water which lacks salinity they sink. The quantities of eggs shed by each fish are enormous; nearly two millions were counted in a cod of a little under 12 lbs. It is fairly certain, however, that not more than two or three, if so many, mature fish are the product of the two million eggs; for if each fish even doubled itself in numbers (if we may use the expression) every year, the sea would soon contain more fish than water. Millions upon millions of eggs are destroyed when there is an on-shore wind during the spawning-season. Sometimes the shore on which they have been wafted has been seen to glisten with them.

By the end of summer such of the young cod-fish as have escaped their many dangers attain about 1 inch in length. They are very varied in colour, which depends on that of the seaweed and their other surroundings. The parent fish, too, vary somewhat in appearance, those round the English coast as a rule having brown backs with irregular spotty markings on the sides, while those from more northern waters usually have darker backs and are less often spotted. Cod are most enormous feeders, and in consequence grow very rapidly. At the Southport Aquarium codling of only ¾ lb. increased in weight to 6 or 7 lbs. in about sixteen months.

So voracious is the cod that it is very apt to swallow anything it sees moving, without considering whether it is wholesome. In 1879 a black guillemot in perfect condition was removed from the stomach of one of these fish; while among other strange finds by cod-fishermen from the same receptacle was a piece of tallow candle 7 inches long, a hare, a partridge, a white turnip, and, going back to the year 1626, a "work in three treatises," which was found in the stomach of a fish captured in Lynn Deeps on midsummer eve, and brought to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge. The usual food of cod is, however, small fish of various kinds--herrings, pilchards, sprats, crabs, and sea-worms; but the species is not particular what it seizes when shoaling before the spawning-season and food is scarce owing to the number of mouths.

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