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 i!flS^i'''.v|,.p^4V 
 
 
 ON THE INFLUENOiT 
 
 IN 
 
 Relation to Fish Oflfal 
 
 AND THB 
 
 * 
 
 ^»- 
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES i 
 
 By henry Y. hind. 
 
 1877. 
 
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 * 
 
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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. 
 
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