THE GADUS CARBONARIUS. 22A 



refers as the young of the Gadus Carbonarius, is no other 

 than the fry of the Salmon.* 



Though this fish is so little esteemed when fresh, yet it 

 is salted and dried for sale, one person having in a year 

 cured above a thousand of the true coal-fish at Scarborough. 



The fry of the coal-fish form a considerable portion of the 

 food of the inhabitants connected with the coasts to which it 

 resorts. About the commencement of July, the young fish 

 appear on the coasts of Yorkshire, in vast shoals, and are 

 at this time about an inch and a half long. In August they 

 are from three to five inches in length, and are taken in 

 great numbers with the angling rod, and are esteemed a 

 very delicate fish, but when a year old the flesh is very 

 coarse, so that very few persons will eat them. Fishes of 

 that age are from eight to fifteen inches long, and begin to 

 have a little blackness near the gills and on the back ; as the 

 animal increases in age, this blackness increases. 



The Linnaean character of this fish is accurate and con- 

 cise. M. Bloch + conceives the blackness and straig-htness of 

 the white lateral line as sufficient to discriminate the species. 

 The skin of the coal-fish is covered with very small oblong 

 scales. It has three dorsal fins, in the first of which are 

 about fourteen rays, in the second eighteen, and in the 

 third twenty; in the pectoral fin eight; ventral fin five; 

 first anal fin twenty-six ; second twenty, and the tail thirty- 

 three, besides ten very short ones on each side ; the tail is 

 broad and of a forked shape. J 



The colour of this fish varies considerably in the differ- 

 ent stages of its growth. When young, a certain duskiness 

 prevails in the colours, which becomes darker as the fish 

 grows older; and when they have attained their full size, 

 which is about two or three feet, the back, nose, dorsal fins, 



* Rees's Cyclopedia, vol.xv. Art. Gadus. 



t Block, Ichthyologist, on Hist. Naturelle, gcn£rale et Farticuliere des 

 Poissons. Flanche lxvi. 

 I Donovan's British Fishes. 



