being a winter fishery. Finmark is the summer cod fishery of Norway.

Although the Newfoundland cod fishery does not show any marked advance in the quantities taken during the last thirty years, the increase in the market value of dried codfish has been enhanced to the extent of from fifty to seventy-five per cent., so that there has been a steady progress in the value of the products. The following Table shows the progress of the value of the whole products of the Newfoundland fisheries during each group of five years, from 1852 to 1876 inclusive, the main increase arising from the cod fishery:

The following are the values of the exports of New

foundland for the years named:

The last-named return in the foregoing Table is for the year ending July 31st, 1881, and is taken from the report of the St. John's Chamber of Commerce. The Custom House returns for 1881 extend to December 31st, 1881, and

show a most extraordinary advance in the value of the fisheries for the whole of that year. The value of the whole exports for 1881 was no less than $9,365,304. The value of fishery products exported in 1881 was thus greater by no less than $2,234,209 than those of 1880. Thus 1881 was by far the most successful year in regard to the products of the fisheries which is on record, the values exceeding those of previous years by nearly two millions and a quarter of dollars. Excluding the catch of cod-fish on Labrador from the returns of 1880 and 1881, the exports of dried cod stood as follows:

Thus the increase in the values of the exports in 1881 arose largely from an increase in the quantity of cod-fish taken, but also from an advance in the price, which, owing to the failure of the Norwegian fisheries, was considerable. Other things combined to swell the value of the exports for 1881. The value of the products of the seal fishery was greater by $302,570 than that of 1880, which had been much below the average. The value of the copper ore exported was also greater by $106,180 than that of 1880. We must therefore regard 1881 as being quite an exceptional year, and one whose results are not likely to be equalled for years to come. The seal fishery of the spring of 1882 has proved one of the very worst on record, the catch not exceeding 150,000 seals. The cause of the falling off was the masses of heavy ice which beset the shores for many weeks, impeding the movements of the vessels. This will of course cause a corresponding falling off in one item of the exports for 1882.

From the foregoing statements it is evident that the

cod fishery of Newfoundland is greater than that of any other cod-producing country in the world, the Norway fishery being next in value. The average value of the Newfoundland products of the cod fishery may now be reckoned at $500,000 per annum; and adding to this the value of the local consumption, we must place the entire annual value at $6,364,000.

It may be interesting to compare the principal sea fisheries of the world in regard to their respective value. The following Table may be regarded as presenting a fairly correct estimate of the annual value:

CHAPTER II.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE COD, ITS DISTRIBUTION, MOVEMENTS, SPAWNING, AND MODE OF CURE.

Cold-water seas and the Arctic current-Nature's laws of compensation-Food of the cod-The Labrador current-An old theory exploded-A submarine plateau-The fishing seasonCaplin and squids-Process of curing the cod-Operators at work-Cod-liver oil-Fishing tackle and methods of taking the cod.

Or the three leading kinds of commercial food-fishes -the cod, the herring, and the mackerel-the cod has the widest range. On the east coast of America, it is found, from the Polar regions on the north to Cape Hatteras on the south, being most abundant on the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, and on the great banks lying to the south and west. On the western coast of America, in the North Pacific Ocean, its boundary runs from Northern China, at Chusan, northward along the west coast of Japan and the Kurile Islands to the southern extremity of Kamtschatka, and across to the Aleutian Islands, by Kodiak, Sitka, and the islands of the west coast of North America to San Francisco. In the Old World the cod has an extensive geographical range, being most abundant in the neighbourhood of the Loffoden Islands, Norway, Finmark, Iceland, the Faroe and British Islands.

Its northernmost limit is in general seventy-seven degrees north latitude, and the southernmost, in the Atlantic, thirty degrees north latitude. It is thus found on the coasts of both continents, and on the line where the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans meet. This may be called the domain of the Gadide, which naturalists tell us embrace nine genera and forty-one species.

Cold-water seas are essential to the life of the commercial food-fishes. In the tropical seas, or

even in

the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, they could not exist, any more than the Arctic hare could thrive in the Torrid Zone. The Arctic current which washes the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada, and part of the United States, chilling the atmosphere, bearing on its bosom huge ice-argosies, is the source of the vast fish wealth which has been drawn on for ages, and which promises to continue for ages to come. Wanting this cold "river in the ocean," the cod, seals, herrings, mackerel, halibut, hake, etc. which now crowd the northern seas, would be entirely absent. The great