MALACOPTERYGII SUBBRACHIATI. 513 



When the coal-fish is young, its flesh is very delicate ; but 

 after a year or so it becomes hard and coriaceous, and never 

 has such a good flavour as the cod. The Icelanders hold it 

 in no estimation, because the whiting is so plentiful on their 

 coasts. In Norway it is the food of the poor alone ; but oil 

 is made from its liver. 



The pollock (merlangtis pollachiusj lives in large troops 

 in the Atlantic Ocean, and the northern seas of Europe, and 

 is partial to the stormy latitudes of the Norwegian coasts, and 

 those of the north of England. Tt is sometimes found in the 

 Mediterranean in winter, in the Baltic, near Lubec, and in 

 the north sea, near Heligoland ; but it never appears assem- 

 bled in troops, and each individual lives in an isolated state. 

 It remains more usually on the surface than in the depths of 

 the sea. 



The type of the subgenus Merlucctus is the fish we call 

 hake. It is taken in equal abundance in the Atlantic Ocean, 

 and in the Mediterranean sea, where the Provencals call it 

 merlan, the name of the whiting. In consequence of the 

 grey tint of its back, it has been spoken of by Aristotle, 

 Oppian, Athenscus, iElian, and Pliny, under the names of ovog 

 and asellus. It is a very voracious fish, and pursues herrings 

 and mackerel with great avidity. It swims in very numerous 

 troops, and is the object of a fishery equally abundant in 

 product and easy in execution. 



The hake is so abundant in the bay of Galway, on the 

 western coast of Ireland, that this bay is named in some 

 ancient maps the bay of hakes. It is equally abundant at 

 Penzance in Cornwall. Since the naval engagement of 1759, 

 it also habitually frequents the neighbourhood of Belle-Isle, 

 where, according to the observations of Querhoent, it was 

 never seen before. This statement, however, we think must 

 be received with some degree of suspicion. 



Its flesh is white and flaky ; its liver is particularly deli- 



vol. x. r< 1 



