BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION 1883.
Page 362

Return to Gloucester of young codfish hatched by United States Fish Commission in 1879.
By Benjamin H. Spinney. [From a letter to Professor S. F. Baird]

I have made inquiry about the codfish taken in Gloucester Harbor, and find several of the boat fishermen who are of the opinion that they are the ones that you hatched here in 1878. They are of a gray color and resemble somewhat a deep-water fish. They came in schools about May1st, and stayed until the middle or last of July. Sometimes they are very plenty. I saw one man who said that he caught 70 or 80 pounds on a mackerel line while at anchor just off Five Pound Island, and that they would weigh from a half pound to two and one half pounds each. I have seen schools of them myself alongside of my wharf at the head of the harbor. I will try and get a sample and send you.
East Gloucester, Massachusetts, August 18, 1883

[Note: Compare report of the return of these cod in 1882: Bull. United States Fish Commission 1882, Vol II, page 112. C.W.S.]

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