S48 MALACOPTERYGII. — GADID^. 



on ledges, tier above tier, from the top of tlie 

 house to within eight feet of the ground ; a fire is 

 then kindled, and fed with green wood, chiefly oak 

 or beech, and maintained, with occasional inter- 

 missions, for about three weeks, or, if the fish 

 are intended for exportation, a month ; the fire is 

 then extinguished, and the house allowed to cool, 

 and in a few days the herrings are barrelled. 

 *' Bloaters" are prepared with much less salt, and 

 therefore, though their flavour is milder and finer, 

 they cannot be preserved good. Hence the supply 

 of these is almost limited to the few weeks during 

 which the fishery lasts. 



Family VI. Gadid^. 



(Cods.) 



We have here another Family of fishes eminent 

 in their usefulness to man. Perhaps, indeed, if 

 we consider the great number of edible species, 

 the immense quantities in which some at least are 

 procured, the excellence of their flesh both fresh 

 and salt, and the facility with which they can be 

 preserved for future consumption, — we may safely 

 pronounce these the most valuable of all the finny 

 tribes. There are about a hundred and ten spe- 

 cies recognised, and of these fully one-third are 

 European. Twenty-one species are enumerated 

 as British, and of these the following eighteen con- 

 tribute more or less extensively to supply the need 

 of man : — the Cod, the Dorse, the Haddock, the 

 Pout, the Poor, the Whiting, Couch's Whiting, the 

 Coalfish, the Pollack, the Green Cod, the Hake, 

 the Ling, the Burbot, three kinds of Rockling, 

 the Torsk, and the Forked Beard : — a goodly list ! 



