222 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



northern parts of the island, as it is also throughout the 

 North and Baltic Seas. Captain Phipps procured this fish, 

 which, together with the Unctuous Lump-sucker, formed 

 the whole produce of his trawling and fishing, in ani- 

 mals of this kind, during his stay in the vicinity of 

 Spitzbergen. A small species of Gadus, nearly allied to 

 this, was found by Captain Scoresby among the Arctic 

 Ice, in the parallel of 78° N. Mr. W. Swainson, who 

 examined this specimen, considered it as a variety of the 

 coal fish ; although, from the contraction and change of 

 colour produced by the spirit in which it was preserved, 

 the lateral line so essential in the determination of the species 

 could not be traced. The number of rays in each of the 

 fins of this was as follows : first dorsal thirteen, second dor- 

 sal eighteen, third dorsal twenty ; first anal twenty-two, 

 second anal twenty, &c. The third ray of the ventral fin 

 was lengthened into a sibulate point ; and the hinder dorsal 

 fin rounded : these are peculiarities that have not been 

 noticed by another, who has hitherto described the coal- 

 fish. 



According to Gmelin, this fish is likewise found in the 

 Pacific Ocean. According to Mr. Pennant, the young of 

 this species swarm about the Orkney Islands and the Coast 

 of Yorkshire ; in the former they constitute the chief sup- 

 port of the poor, and the same writer adds that the fry is 

 known by different names indifferent places; at Scarborough, 

 for example, they are called pans, and when a year old 

 billets. About 1802-3 such numbers of these young animals 

 visited that part that, for several weeks, it was impossible 

 to dip a pail into the sea, without taking some. 



A late author states that although this information may 

 be correct, yet he cannot avoid expressing his opinion that 

 it is the fry of the Salmon, and not the coal-fish, to which 

 Mr. Pennant alludes, in detailing the history of the latter 

 species. Nothing at least, he observes, can be more evi- 

 dent than that the Pan of Mi Pennant, and to which he 



