60 COD. 



which enter their bodies by the mouth and gills, and in a time 

 surprisingly short devour the whole of the soft parts, so as to 

 leave the skin almost empty. Of this last-named method of 

 fishing the success must b? greater than any which can arise 

 from the employment of a few lines that hang from a boat 

 which is manned by no more than two or three up to half a 

 dozen men; but it requires a greater outlay than many fisher- 

 men are able to provide, and a complaint also is sometimes 

 made of the want of bait for such a multitude of hooks. But 

 several hundreds of fishes, including the Cod and Ling, are 

 thus sometimes drawn up at a single haul, and that too at 

 times when boats which must ride at anchor with their lines 

 are not able to encounter the roughness of the sea. 



It has been observed that the largest number of these fishes 

 are often caught when the sea is becoming rough with the 



C 1 * ' 



threatening of a gale from the direction of the deeper sea, yet 

 a heavier storm is said to drive them away. When not sold 

 fresh these fish are prepared with salt for exportation, and also 

 for consumption at home; for which purpose the head and a 

 portion of the backbone, with the entrails, are removed, in 

 which condition they are salted and dried. In the year 1853, 

 according to a report of the Board of Fisheries, the quantity 

 of Cods, Tying, and Hakes cured in Scotland and the Isle of 

 Man, amounted to somewhat more than five thousand nine 

 hundred tons; to which are to be added upwards of three thousand 

 tons which were sold fresh, the whole amounting to nine 

 thousand three hundred and forty-two tons and five hundred- 

 weight ; but this was the highest that had ever been known. 

 Large quantities of Cods which have been thus prepared in 

 Newfoundland are consumed in England. On a copper coin 

 struck in or for the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, with a seal on the obverse, the reverse bears a 

 Cod split and prepared in the manner we have described. 



The Cod is the stoutest species of this family in proportion 

 to its length. The head large, but in a fish in good condition 

 the outline rises from the snout to the beginning of the dorsal 

 fins. The upper jaw projects a little beyond the lower; teeth 

 in both, and a plat in the form of a horse-shoe in front of 

 the palate; a barb on the under jaw. Eye moderate. Body 

 slightly compressed at first, more so behind the vent to the 

 tail; vent midway between the snout and root of the caudal 



