740 PISCES-COD. 



strong health to the rouget, or roach. It is so silly a fish, that it is called 

 the water sheep. 



It is a common fish, found in many of our deep still rivers, affecting, like 

 the others of this genus, quiet waters. It is gregarious, keeping in large 

 shoals. We have never seen them very large. Old Walton speaks of some 

 that weighed two pounds. In a list of fish sold in the London markets, 

 with the greatest weight of each, there is mention of one whose weight was 

 five pounds. 



ORDER VII. — MALACOPTERYGII SUBRACHIATL 



These fishes have the jaws complete ; bronchia? pectinated ; ventral fing 

 placed either before the pectorals, between them, or a little behind. 



THE COD. 1 



The cod seems to be the foremost of the wandering tribe of fishes, and is 

 only found in the northern part of the world. Their principal food consists 

 of the smaller species of fish, worms, shell-fish, and crabs ; and their 

 stomachs are capable of dissolving the major part of the shells which they 

 swallow. They grow to a great size. The largest that ever was seen, 

 was taken at Scarborough, England, in 1775. It weighed seventy-eight 

 pounds, and was five feet eight inches long. This animal's chief place of 

 resort is on the banks of Newfoundland, and the other sand banks that lie 

 off Cape Breton. That extensive flat seems to be no other than the broad 

 top of a sea mountain, extending for above five hundred miles long, and 

 surrounded with a deeper sea. Hither the cod annually repair, in numbers 

 beyond the power of calculation, to feed on the quantity of worms that are 

 to be found there in the sandy bottom. Here they are taken in such quanti- 

 ties, that they supply Europe and America with a considerable share of pro- 

 vision. The English have stages erected all along the shore, for salting 

 and drying them ; and the fishermen, who take them with the hook and 

 line, which is their method, draw them in as fast as they can throw out. 

 An expert hand will sometimes capture four hundred in a day. This 



1 Marrhua vulgaris, Lin. The genus Morrhva has the head compressed ; eyes distant, 

 on the sides of the head; body elongated, slightly compressed; three dorsal fins; two 

 anal ; ventral fins pointed; a cirrus at the point of the lower jaw. 



