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Mapa. piataa. charts, ate., may ba filmad nt diff arant reduction ratioa. Thoaa too larga to ba entirely ineluded in one expoeure ere filmed beginning in the upper left hend comer, left to right and top to bottom, aa many framae ae required. The following diagrame iUuatratt tha method: Lea cartae. planchae. tableeux. ate., peuvent 4tre fllm4a i dee taux do rMuetion dlff^ents. Loraqua la doeument eet trap grand pour Atra raproduit an un soul clieh4. il eat filmA A partir da I'angla sup4rleur gauche, do gauche k droite. et do haut an bee. an prenent le nombre dimegee nAceeaaire. Lee diagrammes auivanta illuatrent le mithode. 1 a • 1 a 3 4 • • *?■«;•' ♦ i!flS^i'''.v|,.p^4V ON THE INFLUENOiT IN Relation to Fish Oflfal AND THB * ^»- NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES i By henry Y. hind. 1877. fwT ^' * tt:> t i-'\ i .. 1. > '::--.0^:. -: i- J ■' 1 > ' '* ^ - J. H 'f Ox\ THE INFLUENCE \ OF A-isTCnoie/ lOE IN REUTIOiN TO FISH OFFAL AXD THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES : By henry Y. HINI>, M. A. ST. JOHNS, NEWFOUNDLAND. 187T. ON THE INFLUENCE OF ANCHOll ICE IN RELATION TO FISH OFFAL AND THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES. PART 11. Contents. I. The Rektive Quantity of Oxygen required by Fishes Old and Young. II. The Source of the Food of the Cod. in. The Ice Drift, IV. Food of Cod in Northern Seas. V. Distribution ot Fish Ova by the Ice Drift. w ON THE INFLUENCE OF ANCHOR ICE IN KEIATION TO FISH OFFAL AND THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES. PART II. I. THE RELATIVE QUANTITY OF OXYGEX REQUIRED BY FISHES, OLD AND YOUNG. ASSUMING that the anilysij of the gases contained in sea water, by Mr. Lant Carpenter* represents their average quantities and composition in the Atlantic Ocean, under cir^ Glial stances which permit of perfect sBration, we have the means for obtaining a correct view of the relative consurap- ^ *Appeudix A. in Sir Wyville's Thomson's "Depths of the Sea."— Sutnmary of results of the examination of samples of sea water taken at the surface and at various depths. By William Xjant Carpenter, B.A., B. Sc. p. 502. 2- 1 t tion of cxygen by marine life, and the sources of the unfailing supply of the life-sustaining gas. Different species of fish of the same weight require about the same quantities of oxygen to support respiration, but of the same species, the older individuals require mucii less than the younger in proportion to their weight. A cod- lish of 20lbs. weight requires very much less oxygen than the same weight of young fish, and the quantity required by the individual young is out of all proporti'/U to the quantity requned by old fifh. This curious and important fact Arises fn m the rc-spir-atoiy process being much moie active in yourg fish than in old individuals, and its discovery and announce- ment, together wnth other important discoveries in relation to fish life, are due to M. Quinquand, who some time since brought ihc subject before the Academy of Sciences in Paris, M, Quinquand has also ascertained the relation which exists between fishes and man, as to quantity of oxygen consumed in respiratic n. We are thus belter able to com- prehend the great value of thoroughl) aerated waters to young fish, and the diaiacler of the deleterious effects likely to le produced by fish offiil, and indeed any substance which upon decomposition consumes the oxygen of sea, — or river water — necestary for the respiration of very young and small fishes, such as sawdust from mills, or vegetable or animal refuse of any kind. We can filso comprehend the vast importance of Avinds and currents in aerating the ocean, and of a rapid flow in rivers in terating their waters. According to Mr. Lant Carpenter, the surface water of the ocean contains a greater quantity of oxygen and a less quantity of carbonic acid after a strong wind. In order to show that young and small fish, vvhose respiration is very active, consume ccnsideiably more oxygen than old or large fish in proportion to their weight, the T :,i "T" + T ,j. iijusti aliens supplied by M. Quinquand may be instanced. Comparing tbe reppiiatoiy uqiiircmenls of the perch ^^iih tliose of man as a standard, we have tlie following 6\iggcstive proportions ; A perch Weighing ever one pound has a respiratory ao'iivity one-mnih as great as a man in proportion to its weight. A perch weighing one thiid of a pound consumes i IV o-nint hs ^s, m\xc\\ ( xygcn as a mnn. A young perch not (ine-sixtcenth of a poui;d in weight consumes one half as much oxygen as a man in picpoiticn to weight of living matter. Applying these relative quantities to the codfish, the relation stands as below : — A numbei- of codfish each weighing 31bs., and together equal in weight to a 1-ull-groAvn man, consume, say, only one twentieth as much oxygm in respiration as the man. A larger number of smaller codfifch of one pound each, but of the same {iggrcgate weight as the man, ccnsume cne fifth as much OX) gen ; but a nvrmber of cod fry equal in aggregate weight to tie man c( nsume half as much oxygen. 'Iheso remarliable differences in respiratory activity, and consequently in die demand for the supply of oxygen, i?how how important it is for lish fiy and young fish to have an abundant end constant supply of the vital gas. M. Quir.quand has pointed rut another und equally imp(rtant fact ccnnected with the refpiratory piocess of young fish. 'Jhe young of mr-hnalhirg animals resist asphyxia or suffoeatien by deprivation of oxygen, much moie vigorously than adults, but the young oi Jish respiring by means of gills, seem to sutler much more rapidly than adults when the proper supply of oxygen diminishes. From these considerali(ns it follows, that as young fish and fish fry visit during the summer the coastal and shoal waters, and are probably hatched in them, the fish offal is thrown into the sea at the precise spot where it is likely to be most prejudicial to young fish life. It also fullows that sea watei which will suppsrt the life of fish, one, two an;l in:n'Q p:)unds in weight, will deitroy tiie life of youji^ fry. Sjulpins n ad flatfish, which abound neir the sttige heads in 8UiTi,n3r, miy live and thrive ia water wholly unfit for the respiration of yonng fish, which require abundance of oxygen. Hence on cjd banks, and on all fishing grounds where fish oflFil is thrown over- board, large fish, an J fish over one or two poun Is weight ma^ not be injured by it, yet small fish and fish fry, whose respiratory [ ocesses are cntiriily active, will be destroyed, especially during calms. Marine life, without red blood corpusoulesy and of lower respiratory organization than young fish, will not be injured by water deprived of oxygen by decomposing fi^h off'al, to an extent sufficient to destroy young fish life. In brief, all of M. Qainquand's experiments and observations point to the positive necessity for preserving in a state of purity those waters in which fish spawn is hatched, and "n. which youug fish disport themselves. Valuable information on the necessity for a continuous supply of oxygen for young fish is to be found in the " Report on the Progress of Pisciculture in Russia," given at page 493 of Commissioner Baird's Report for 1872 and 1873. M. Theodore Soudakevicz states in this report, that ''if the water contains less oxygen than is required to oxidize the blood, the gills change their lamelleo,- aiid their fringes agglutinate, decompose, are covered with parasiies, and the want of oxygen necessarily brings abou^ the d^ath of the fish.." & II. THE SOURCE OF THE FOOD OF THE COD IN the " Notes on the Northern Labrador Fishing Grounds" I have briefly referred to the unfailing sui);->ly of Arctic food, brought dovyn by ice and accumulated on. the continuous range of JJanka which extend from Cape Aillik to C^pe Chudleigh. Il may be well to describe with some detail the character of tho^ Arctic waters as food producers, for it is a popular impression that the cold of the Arctic Seas is prejudicial t > life. In trdch the Arctic waters and the great currents flowin.Tfrom them, are in many places a living mass, a vast ocean of living slime, and the all-peivading. life which exiits there alix)rd& the true solution of the problem which has stt often presented itself to tliose engaged in theGreatFisIierios, where the food comes from which gives siistenancQ to the countless nriiilicms of fish whixjh swann on the Labrador, on the coast of Newfoundland, and in Dominion anxl Unitod States' waters, or wlierever the Arctic Current exerts an active influence. Professor Nordenskiold reminds us, in an accnint of " an Expedition to Greenland in 1870," that Hudson and other veteran mariners of the Arctic Seas mention the variety of colours characterizing the water in certai'i pares of the Polar Sea, which are frequently so shar[)ly distinguished that a ship may sail with one side in blue water, and the olhcr in greyish -green water. It was at first sapposed that those colours were indicative of different currents — the green of the Arctic and the bluo of the Gulf-stream, Later, Sc^resby afTirmod that tin3 phenomena arose from the presence of innumerable organisms in the water. Subsequently Dr, Brown, during a voyage 6 ■ I I \ made by him as surgeon in a whaler, continued ihe observa-* tions, and more recently Professor Nordenskiold himself. The sea water in the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen he describes as marked by two sharply distinguished colours, greenish grey and fine indigo-blue, In the Greenland'Seas there is water with a very decided tinpe of brown. The grey^green water is generally met with in the neighbourhood of ice ; the blue where the water is free from ice ; the brown, as far as Professor Nordenskicild's observations go, chiefly in that part of Davis' Straits which is situated in fmnt of " Fiskernaes " (Lat, 63*' 1', Long. 50° 1') on the Greenland coast opposite the 'mouth of Hudson's Straits, When specimens of the water are taken up in an un<i coloured glass, it appears perfectly clear and colourless, nor can the unassisted eye discover any organisms to account for the colour. But if a fine insect-net be towed behind the ship, it will soon become covered with a film of green in the green water, and with a film of brown in the bT^own water. These films are of organic origin. Itisalivingblime, and where it abounds there are also to be found swarms of minute crustaceans which feed on the slime, and in their turn become the food of larger animals. Dr. Brown shows that the presence of this slime spread over a hundred thousand square miles, is a condition necessary for the subsistence, not only of the swarms of birds that frequent the Northern Seas, but of the large marine animalt, even up to the giant whale. In Southern Seas the " slime of the ocean " is equally abundant. On the 4lh February, 1874, in lat. 52.29 south, long, 71.80 east. Sir Wyville 'ihomson found this " slime " a little to the north of the Heard Islands. The tow net which was diagging a few fathoms below the surface, came up nearly filled with a pale yellow gelatinous mass, which was found to consist entirely of Diatoms, and of the same species as were found at the bottom. Sir Wyville Thomson expresses surprise that the diatoms on the surface did not appear to be in large numbers over what he has termed the diatom ooze, as in some other localities, where he found them near the surface and beyond or south of the diatom ooze belt j but he explains their apparent absence by stating that " this may perhaps be accounted for by our not having struck their belt of depth with the tow-net, or it is possible, &c." * The '* belt of depth " at which these minute but infinitely numerous organisms live appears ta vary with changes in the pressure of the atmosphere and the temperatu:e. But the myriads of minute crustaceans which feed on the "slime" rise &nd fall with it. !Now they may be at the surface, in an hout^ a fathom below, and in a day the 2one of life may be five fathoms below the surface, and with it the minute crustaceans and the hosts of other marine animals which prey on these. Hence it is that the " herring bait,'' the " mackerel bait,'* the •* red, " "yellow " and *' black herring meat" of the Nor* wegian fif:heimen, are found at variable depths, following their food, and thus leading the herribg to dijQeretit zones below the surface of the ocean, all of trhich may be comprised within a score of fathoms. These facts are the key to m ysteries which have hitherto shrouded the movements of the herring. But this "blime of the ocean" appears to lire most abundantly in the coldest water and in the neighbour- hood of ice. how is it, then, brought on to the Labrador in Bucb an unfailing stream as indirectly to afibrd en endless supply of food to the cod en the Labrador banks 1 The answer to this question leads at once to a brief description of the ice drift. • « Nature," December 10th, 1874. ii n coc eci Mi mmm B ni. THE ICE DRIFT. THIS is one of the grandest phenomena on the face of the globe. It is so vast, so uniform and so unceasing, that, with the exception of the Gulf-stream, from .its initiation to its close, nothing on earth can compare with it. Coming from the Spitzbergen Seas, an^l hugging the coast of East Greenland, the Polar ice»ladened current creeps south westerly past IceJiuid, past Greenland, and the known east coast, towards Cape Farewell. Its rate of progression is about four milei a-day, tha breadth nf the ice-burdened, stream about 200 miles. After Cape Farewell, the most southern part of Greenland is reached, the grand procession of ice-bergs and ice-floes turns slowly to the west, then in a wide curve to the north-west and towards Divis' » Straits . Augmented by additions from Western Greenland coming down Baffins Bay, the mighty stream begins to turn to the westward in the life-teeming saas off Fiskernoe?, and approaches Frobisher Bay, and Hudson's Straits. Here it receives fresh accessions of bergs and floes, th3 united armies trending southerly, then south-easterly towards the Labrador, and on the banks off this coast countless thousands ground, bringing with them their "slirae." Others drift on past the Newfoundland coast until they are lost in the Gulf- stream, but paving the bottom of the onem with the skeletons of the Diatoms they have brought from the north. Recent high authority confirms the view of this course of the northern ice stream advanced some years since by Colding-, and others. Admiral E. Irmin^^ec, of the Danisli Navy, in a reojnt p.^jr on "the Arctic Carreat around Greenland* adopts the generally received conclusion that the current from the ocean around Spitzbergen which carries the icebergs and floes after it, has passed along the east coast of Greenland, turns westward and northward around Cape Farewell, without detaching any branch to the south-westward directly towards the Banks of Newfoundland. The current afterwards runs northward along the south-west coast of Greenland, until about latitude 64 degrees north, and at times even as far up as 67 degrees. Afterwards turning westward, it unites with the current coming from Baffin's and Hudson's Bays, running to the southward on the western side of Davis' Straits, along the coast of Labrador.f V, < It is thus that the " slime " which accompanies the ice- bergs and ice floes of the Arctic, accumulates on the Banks of Northern I^abrador, and renders the existence possible there of all those forms of marine life, — from the diatom to the minute crustacean — from the minute crustacean to the prawn, starfish and crab, together with molluscous aniraali in vast profusion, — which contribute to the support of the gieat schools of cod whioh also find their home there. • Vide— A selection of papers on Arctic Geography and Ethnology, reprinted and presented to the Arctic Expedition of 1875, by the President, Council and Fellows of the Royal Q-aographioal Society, — 'Nature,' June 10th, 1875. . . , t • Nature,' June 10th, 1875. 10 .V. xOOD OF THE COD IN NORTHERN SEAS. )URING my visit to the Labrador last summer I was rather surprised to find that the Newfoundland fisher- men appeared to place entire reliance upon four kinds of ait for cod, namely, the caplin, the squid, the herring and 'he launce. I gathered from conversation with many of them, that the opinion pievailed that the cod were nourished almost exclusively upon this food, and that where there were ,10 caplin, &c., there would be no " fish," as the cod is popularly termed. It may therefore not be out of place to enumerate some of the opinions of prominent naturalists on this very important subject. Sir "Wyville Thomson tells us in that most instructive and interesting work "The depths of the Sea," that the Faroe Banks (lat. 61. long. 9°) are frequented during the i&hing season by numerous English and Foreign fishing ressels, whose chief pursuit is t'le cod. The^e banks are about ICO miles north-west of Scotland. The cod abound on the banks and are chiefly of large size. The depth of water varies from 46 to 100 fathoms. *' 'J he banks swarm with the common brittle star (ophiothrix fragilis)^ with the Norway lobster {nejphrojps novvegicas)^ large spider crabs, several species of the genus galaihea, and many of the genus cramgon (fchrimp). So ample a supply of their favourite food readily cconnts for the ahvndance and eaccllence of the cod and iiig on the Banks'^ * Passing the Davis* Straits and the coast of Greenland, )r. Robert Brown states that " the invertebrata of Uieco Bay • " The Depths of the 8e8," page 60. ■■ ^1 lat. 69) are numerous, mollusca echionuermata, cmstacea, polyzoa, nydrozoa, &c., abounding, though to nothing like the extent the lower forms of animal life swarm on the RiskoU cod-banke." * Dr. Sutherland f states that the limits of the Riskoll 'ank can be defined almost at all times by the clusters and roups of small icebergs that take ground upon it, and this ank ** like other banks of a similar character but less xtensive on the same coast, is exceedingly fertile in schools f codfish and halibut which frequent it in the months of lay, June, July and August." This description of the icebergs on the Riskoll cod bank pplies exactly to the banks off" the coast of Northern Labrador, and the fact that the cod are so abundant there, opposite as it were to the Labrador, (tht; Torsks Bank) during the months of May, June, July and August supplies a potent argument against an impression quite common among Newfoundland fishermen respecting the supposed extensive migrations of the schools of cod. Indeed cod of large size may be simultaneously caught on the Newfoundland coasts, the Labrador, the west side of Davis Straits* and the east side or Greenland coasts of the same Straits. Richardson in his * Fauna Bar eali Americana,' page 243, quotes Davis' description of his run across the entrance of Hudson's Straits from latitude 67 degrees to 67 degrees on the Labrador coast as illustrating the abundance of the cod in those waters. Davis says " laefore the bait was changed we took more than forty great cods, the fish wimming so abundantly thick about our baric as is incredible to be reported.'* * Geological Magazine — Feb., 1876. t Proceedings of the Geological Society— London, 1863. i^»»- 12 V. DISTRIBUTION OF FISH OVA BY THE ICE DRIFT. IT will not escape notice that the same ice drift whicli brings the " slime " and the mjrriads of crustaceans must also carry with it minute codfish spawn. The never-failing stream of bergs and floes sailing so grandly past the numerous cod banks on the Greenland coast, and crossing with semi- circular sweep to the American side of Davis Straits and then to the Labrador, can scarcely fail to convoy innumerable cod ova, together with the original diatom source of the food of young fish, and of adults after multitudinous transform- ations. Cod ova appears to find the coldest surface water most suitable for their development, for the spawn is shed during the coldest months of the year in those waters where ice does not prevail to ensure the requisite degree of coldness. On the coast of Nova Scotia in October.* On the well- known George's Bank off New England, in February and March.f In November and December in the Bay of Fundy.$ Probably, however, the season of each local school is determinpd to a greater or less extent by the coldest mean temperature of the surface water near its habitat — a home, as long as new ice does not interfere. Every drop of surface sea water as it cools descends, and in the fall of the year the surface water is the warmest, the coldest stratum being at the bottom. This as is well known is not the case with fresh water, below a temperature of forty degrees. * Revd. T. Ambrose — " Some observations on the Fishing Grounds and Fish of St. Margaret's Bay," N. S. Trans. N. 8. Inst. Nut. Sci. 1866. t T. F. Whiteavos— Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VII. X Ibid. I X8 If records of the spawning periods throughout the entire area of the North Amarican Cod Fisheries were collated, it would be found that this fish spawns all the year round J Where there is no great ice drift, such as has been described, to cool the surface water in summer, the periods of shedding and liatching of spawn are adjusted to accommodate them- selves to the temperature of the coastal waters, or the temperature of banks and shoals. The coasts of Nov^ Scotia swarm with cod fry in the fall at the period when ice has formed, and is farming, on the Labrador and parts of the Newfoundland G^ast, and it must be borne in mind that there is a wide distiftction between the spawning of inshore cod and bank cod, "With regard to fresh water fish eggs and embryo it appears that within certain limits " the higher the tempera*^ ture of the water in which eggs are placed the more rapidly the embryo fish develops within the egg and the sooner it escapes from its enclosure in the shell." (Milner — U, S. Fishing reports, Spencer F. Baird, Commissioner.) The observations of Sars h ave shown, as already stated, that codfish spawn floats during the greater p:<rt, if not the whole of the period of its development, but we do not know the duration of that period in different waters and climites. We are quite justified in supposing that ova may be shed and hatched throughout the entire length and period of the Great Ice Drift, the ova being derived trom schools of fish which haunt the banks and shoals past which the drift is for ever stealing. We know too, that the young fish would be hatched during the short summer in a sea of food most suitable for them, and in tbis beautiful compensating arrangement we can discern provision for a continuous supply — literally a stream — of ova and young fish, drifting towards our coast to assist in replacing the three hundred million fish which are annually taken from North American waters by fisherman of all nations. This living but disjointed stream of life, like tiaks in a chain, which accompanies the icebergs, as^i^ts too 14 i n replacing the countless thousands of J^oiing fry which aro poiscned by the fish ofFal in the coastal waters. But there is a danger in store for the ova which may thus drift on to Newfoundland shores, and also for the ova of local schools of fish. The winter months being the period during which many schools spawn, this time may also be the season on parts of the Newfoundland Coast, or rather adjacent to it, and much of the spawn may be taken under the fringe of coast ice by tidal currents. In favourable situations the • process of development goes on uninterruptedly, butaccording to the observations of Dr. Kunson,* oxygen is necessary for the development of the ovum, and if oxygen be absent from the water in which the ova are suspended, death ensues. This condition, as already shown, exists over wide areas beneath the ice in the neighbourhood of fish stages. The offal consumes the oxygen by its slow decomposition, and it cannot be replaced under the icy covering, until the ice breaks up in the springer during storms, but meanwhile life in the ovum is destroyed. According to the views here presented, some of the ovn supplied by the cod shoals \>hose habitat is the Forske Bank, off Sukkertoppcn, and banks lying south of those celebrated codgiounds on the coast of Greenland, floats with the ice- ladened stream towards Cumberland Sound and Frobisher Bay, and is hatched on its journey, the young fish fry finding a new home in mid ocean or on the western coast of Davids Straits, Some of the ova from the schools described by Davis on that coast, floats with the ice stream in the track •Davis followed towards the Labrador, and is hatched, it may be, near Cape Ghudleigh. Some of the ova from the Cape Chudleigh schools,— and these are numercuF, — float with the iceberg stream along the coast of Labrador and are hatched on the Southern Labrador. Southern Labrador fish supply ova which is carried by the same unfailing ice stream partly into thc^Gulf and partly along the north-east coast of New- ♦ W. H. -Ran60D,-M.D.'—r<Wc Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, Vol. I. f 15 foundland towards the Gri^rtd Banks^ and so on, as far as the icebergs travel, and cool the surface water sufficiently to admit of the proper development of the ova. It may be that this drift o spawn supplies an explanation of a statement 'made to me last summer that the couiisii about Cape Chud* leigh are largely nourished during the short summer season by feeding upon the younjj of their awn species. One would suppose, that if no other saurce of young cod existed there but the supply naturally furnished by local schools, the result would ultimately be extermination, notwithstanding the wonderful fecundity of the cod. The observation, if correct, suggests the use of ycung red as bait in seas where bait to which the fishermen are accustomed, is supposed to be difficult to procure. But the questions involved in the term * bait ' are too numerous and comprehensive to be adverted to here, and it will suffice to say that what is *bait' in one season is not bait in the fisherman's acceptation of the term in another season. A codfish would turn from a squid in May or October, which he would seize with avidity in July, and the shell fish which form a considerable portion of his food, and which are used as bait in Europe, do not appear to have attracied attention here. The conclusions which flow from the foregoing brief exposition of certain ice phenomena on the coasts of Labrador End Newfoundland in relation to the fisheries, appear to justify the opinion that although considerable apparent diminution has taken place during late years in the yield of the shore fisheries, there is no ground for the supposition that the fisheries generally are failing, or that the resources of the seas which wash these shores have been taxed beyond tbeir powers of production, or that by judicious caution, easily exercised, the inshore fisheries may not become as prolific as formerly. The means for reproduction are on a scale so grand and inexhaustible, the fields from which supplies are drawn to nourish the sdhools of fish are so vast in their extent and so far beyond the power of man to injure or diminish, that the one care appears to be thrown upon tim, to .protect from usieless destruction that which i& J^ incessantly brought within his reach. The Northern Labrador fishing grounds offer a new and wide field for industry, with resources and advantages far greater than have hitherto been ascribed to them. Their occupation will afford time for the recuperation of other fields nearer home, whidb require rest after yielding their treasures abundantly for generations, and at the same time, ^protection from indiscreet and unnecessary pollution, which in the long run of years has greatly aided in diminishing their fertility. HENRY Y. HIND. i '^ M 1 I ^ '•^ M iiMwc t eo e ce t i i