Class IV. COMMON COD FISH. 173 



either few in quantity, or bad in quality. The 

 Greenland fifh are fmall and emaciated through want 

 of food, being very voracious, and having in thofe 

 feas a dearth of provifion. 



This locality of fituation is common to many 

 other fpecies of this genus, moil of them being in- 

 habitants of the cold feas, or fuch that lie within 

 zones that can juft clame the title of temperate. 

 There are neverthelefs certain fpecies found near the 

 Canary I/lands, called Cherny *, of which we know 

 no more than the name j but according to the un- 

 fortunate Captain Glafs, are better tailed than the 

 Newfoundland kind. 



The great rendezvouz of the cod fifh is on the 

 Banks of Newfoundland, and the other land banks 

 that lie off the coafts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, 

 and New England. They prefer thofe fituations, 

 by reafon of the quantity of worms produced in 

 thofe fandy bottoms, which tempt them to refort 

 there for food : but another caufe of the particular 

 attachment the fifh have to thefe fpots, is their vi- 

 cinity to the polar feas, where they return to fpawn ; 

 there they depofe their roes in full fecurity, but 

 want of food forces them, as foon as the firft more 

 fouthern feas are open, to repair thither for fub- 

 fiftence. 



Few are taken north of Iceland, but on the fouth 

 and weft coafts they abound : they are again found 



* Hift. Canary IJlands, 198. 



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