232 GADID.E. 



quently called the Baltic Cod. It is included by Professor 

 Nilsson in his Fishes of Scandinavia, and seems to be fully 

 entitled to one of its names, that of Variable Cod, four 

 northern varieties appearing to be well known, which are 

 each distinguished there by a particular term referring to 

 peculiarities in the colouring. It spawns in March and 

 April. 



Fabricius describes this species as being very numerous in 

 many parts of Greenland ; and Captain James C. Ross, in his 

 Natural History, Appendix to the last Arctic Voyage, says, 

 c ' our having found it on the north coast of the American 

 continent, along the shores of the inlet to the west of the 

 peninsula of Boothia, is an interesting feature in its history. 

 At the same time, the fact that the only four species of fish 

 which were found by us in that inlet, being also common to 

 Davis's Strait and Baffin's Bay, may be considered an addi- 

 tional proof, if any still be wanting, of a water communication 

 between these two seas. It is also worthy of remark, that 

 only two of these four species inhabit the sea on the east side 

 of the isthmus of Boothia." 



The last published description of this species that I am 

 acquainted with, and most likely to have been taken from 

 the fish itself, is that by M. Nilsson, before referred to ; and 

 it is here given rather than multiply in print any well-known 

 description of older date. I have never seen a specimen of 

 the fish. 



" Body elongated, subventricose ; head, back, and sides, 

 more or less spotted ; lateral line white, bent ; tail square ; 

 upper jaw much the longer ; snout prominent, sharp; under 

 jaw only half as long as the head, and ending on a line half- 

 way between the nose and the eye." 



The fin-rays in number are 



D. 15. 18. 20. : P. 20 : V. 6 : A. 19. 18. : C. 24. 



Length from twelve to twenty-four inches. 



