66 



DORSE. 



VARIABLE COD. BALTIC COD. 



Asellus varius, WILLOUGIIBY: p. 172, table L. 1. 



BLOCH; pi. 63. 



Gadus callarias, LINNAEUS. 



Gade callarias, LACEPEDE. 



Morrhua callarias, CUVIEK. YAUKELL; Br. F., vol. ii, p. 231. 



THE Dorse is especially a fish of the north, for it exists in 

 large numbers in the sea about Greenland, and even in the 

 Frozen Ocean on the north of America. It is familiarly known 

 also on the coast of Norway and Sweden, and further in the 

 Baltic, where it is said to ascend rivers as far as the tide 

 reaches; but its appearance further south is uncommon, and it 

 is only as a rare straggler that it has shewn itself in the west 

 of England or south of Ireland. Yet I have known a few 

 instances in which it has been taken on the north and south 

 borders of Cornwall; and I feel little doubt that what has 

 been supposed a rare variety of the Haddock, preserved in the 

 museum of the Dublin University, and referred to in the 

 catalogue of that collection, as also mentioned in Mr. Thompson's 

 "Natural History of Ireland," is in fact an example of the 

 Dorse. The mistake here supposed, of confounding this fish 

 with the Haddock has occurred in at least one other instance, 

 and is the rather to be excused as in its general form it bears 

 a nearer likeness to the last-named fish than to a well-fed 

 ordinary Cod, although indeed in colour it differs greatly from 

 both. 



The peculiar habits of the Dorse as distinguished from the 

 others of its family have not been communicated to us; but 

 we know it takes a bait, and as food it is said to be of 

 superior quality, this preference being assigned to it even after 

 it has been salted. 



