53 



MORTUIUA. 



"Weth the characters of the family as above, there are three dorsal 

 and two anal fins; a barb at the point of the lower jaw. 



COD. 



Asellus cahelian, Jonston; tab. 1, f. 1, and tab. 2, f. 1. 



" " WiLLOUGHBY; p. 155, tab. L. m. f. 4. 



Gadus morrhua, Linnaeus. Bi.ocii; pi. 64. 



Donovan; pi. 106. 



Morrhua vulgaris, Cuvier. Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 191. 



" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 221. 



Gade morue, Lacepede. 



Gadus morrhua, Jenyns; Manual, p. 4-40. 



" " Gunther; Cat. Br. M., vol. iv, p. :^28. 



The fishes of this family are of special importance in that 

 they supply an abundance of wholesome and acceptable food to 

 man; and so much the more valuable are they that they may be 

 preserved with salt without being deprived of their good qualities; 

 and in that condition they are conveyed to countries in which 

 otherwise there might be a considerable deficiency. All the 

 species are limited to the temperate and colder regions of the 

 ocean, with a slight exception; and of them all the Cod is 

 the most abundant, as it is also, in an economical point of 

 view, the most valuable; so that in pursuit of it extensive 

 fisheries are carried on in different parts of the world. 



Within the range we have specified it is very generally 

 scattered about, at the variations of depth from ten or twenty 

 fathoms to fifty or sixty; but there are favourite districts in 

 which they assemble in vast multitudes, and to which they 

 are drawn chiefly by the abundance of acceptable food, but 

 partly also by the nature of the ground, their chosen haunts 

 being on the elevated surface of some subaqueous mountain or 

 plain. 



