COD, POLLOCK, HADDOCK AND HAKE. 341 



large Codfish has suggested the idea that sometimes they swallow the 

 fishermen. 



A wedding ring which belonged to Pauline Burnam, an English lady 

 who was lost in the steamship " Anglo Saxon," wrecked off Chance Cove, 

 N. F., in 1S61, was lately restored to her relations by a St. Johns (N. F.) 

 fisherman, who found the ring in the entrails of a Codfish. The lucky 

 fisherman received a present of £50 for restoring the highly prized 

 memento to the lady's son.* 



Stones of considerable size are often found in their stomachs, and 

 fishermen have a theory that this is a sign of an approaching storm and 

 that the fish thus take in ballast to enable them to remain at the bottom 

 when the waters are troubled. It is more likely that these stones are 

 swallowed on account of sea-anemones or other edible substances which 

 may be attached to them, in just the same manner that the shells of mol- 

 lusks are taken in for the sake of the nutritious parts which they contain. 



It is believed that certain schools of Codfish feed slmost entirely at the 

 bottom, while others prey upon fish. The fishermen claim to be able to 

 distinguish these two classes by their general appearance, the first being 

 heavier, with shorter heads, blunter noses, and smaller fins, and frequently 

 known as " grubbers " or " ground-keepers," while fish belonging to what 

 are known as the squid school, the herring school, and the lant school, 

 which are probably the same fish at different seasons of the year, are 

 brighter-eyed, slenderer in form, with sharper head, and in every way 

 better adapted for swift locomotion. On the coast of Labrador, as well 

 as in Scandinavia, Codfish follow the schools of spawning capelin in to the 

 shore and prey greedily upon them, and elsewhere, at other seasons, they 

 feed with no less voracity upon other species of fish which may be school- 

 ing, and of which they destroy vast numbers, such as mackerel, menhaden, 

 herring, alewife, salmon, sculpin, flounders, dinners, and haddock. 



On the Grand Banks, especially in shallow water about the Virgin 

 Rocks, I have been told that they follow the lant to the surface, pursuing 

 them with great fierceness. Along our northern coasts they replace, to 

 some extent, the voracious bluefish and bonito of the South. Capt. 

 Atwood remarks that the amount of food which they consume is enormous, 

 when the size of the fish is taken into account. He has seen them on the 

 coast of Labrador, where the capelin were in great numbers, with their 



* Bostun Journal, July 9, 1S71. 



