CODS. 251 



The fishery for Cod on the banks and shores of 

 Newfoundland and Labrador is the most impor- 

 tant in the world, for the number of men and the 

 amount of capital that it employs. It is estimated 

 that twenty thousand British subjects are directly 

 engaged in the fishery, and probably thrice as 

 many are more or less directly supported by it. 

 The annual produce of their efforts may be 

 roundly stated at 600,000 hundred weights of dried 

 fish, and 3000 tuns of cod-liver oil ; the whole 

 worth, at the place of shipment, 450,000/. sterling. 

 It has been supposed that more than six thousand 

 vessels are engaged in the Cod fishery on both sides 

 of the Atlantic ; and that thirty-six millions of 

 these fishes are captured, salted and dried, to be 

 then distributed over the various regions of the 

 globe, " We have eaten them," says Mr. Swainson, 

 "under the name of Sfock-Jish, in all parts of the 

 Mediterranean, brought by our English vessels ; 

 and they are to be had in all parts of the 

 Brazilian Empire, — being carried on the backs of 

 mules from the sea-coast into those provinces of 

 the interior, where fresh fish cannot easily be 

 procured." We believe, howev^er, that the term 

 Stock-fish distinctively applies to the Cod dried 

 whole, or gutted only, without salt, as the Nor- 

 wegians treat their fish ; the British split it, take 

 out the backbone, salt it, and dry it fiat. To 

 Brazil and the West; Indian Isles, Cod fish is sent 

 in casks, pressed in by a screw ; to tlie Mediter- 

 ranean and home market it is shipped m bulk. 



The Cod is a deep-water fish, rarely coming 

 into the shallows ; he is a voracious and almost 

 promiscuous feeder. Unlike the Herring or 

 Mackerel, it can scarcely be called gregarious ; 



