1 



t 



THE COD OR BACCALAO. 



COD, POLLOCK, HADDOCK AND HAKE. 



T'was merry, when 

 You wager'd on your angling ; when your diver 

 Did hang a salt fish on his hook, which he 

 With fervency drew up. 



Anthony and Cleopatra, Act ii Scene v. 



Within this twenty ye.irs 

 Westward be found new lands, 



* * ::: 



Fish they have so great plenty. 



That in havens take and slane they be 



With staves, withouten fail, 



Now Frenchmen and others have found the trade 



That yearly of fish there they lade 



Above a hundred sail. 



ExPERiENS, The Four Elevicnts, 1519. 



'TpHE Codfish and its allies constitute, from an economical point of view, 

 the most important of all the families of fishes, containing, as it does, 

 a large number of species, most of them of considerable size, distributed 

 throughout all parts of the northern hemisphere, usually found together in 

 great numbers, readily captured, and easily preserved for future use. 



The codfish is usually found in the North Atlantic, in the North Pacific, 

 and in the Polar Ocean, its range extending far beyond the Arctic Circle. 

 It seems unnecessary to enumerate all the localities in which it has been 

 observed, for its geographical range may be defined with sufficient accu- 

 racy by a much more comprehensive statement. In the ^^'estern 

 Atlantic the species occurs in the winter in considerable abundance as 

 far south as the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, lat. 37°, and stragglers 



