ISStJ) 101 lAfwuod. 



the cod does, but lay their eggs earlier than they ; and it is only at 

 this time that they take the hook freely. In the vicinity of Province- 

 town, the deposition of eggs takes place in November, but it occurs to 

 the northward somewhat earlier. The Pollock is not strictly a ground 

 fish, but it often rises close to the vessel. The liver yields much oil, 

 and in this respect this fish is more productive than the cod. 



The Hake {Pkycis americanus) differs from the European repre- 

 sentative of the same genus. It is a ground fish, found close to the 

 bottom, and rarely comes to the surface. They are much more 

 inclined to take the hook by night than by day; are found on muddy 

 bottoms during the whole summer and autumn, along the coast of 

 Maine and Massachusetts. They yield a large quantity of oil, which 

 is used for the same purpose as that of the pollock and cod. The 

 autumn finds them in the best condition, and, if prepared with care, 

 they are a tolerably good table fish. Capt. Atwood had known them 

 to grow to the size of forty pounds, but the average in summer is onlv 

 five to ten pounds. There are two species of hake ; for besides the one 

 just mentioned, which at Provincetown has the name of the white hake, 

 there is a smaller one called the squirrel hake, which mixes with the 

 others around the shores and in the harbors, but is seldom ibund in the 

 deeper waters. These have proportionately larger scales, and never 

 weigh more than three or four pounds. Their caudal fin is also 

 shorter, and a noticeable thing in dressing these fishes is that in the 

 white hake the bones are softer than in any other of the Gadidce, 

 while the smaller species, or Phyck fdamentosus, has bones as hard as 

 those of the cod-fish. 



Another species of the same family found in our waters is the cusk 

 {Bromius vulgaris), which again is identical with the European spe- 

 cies of the genus. They inhabit deep waters and rocky localities ; 

 not hard, smooth, rocky bottoms, but ledges, and the vicinity of large 

 angular rocks. They are not so numerous as either of those pre- 

 viously mentioned, and at Cape Cod are quite rare. Capt. Atwood 

 had seen a specimen or two to the eastward of, and near. Cape Cod, 

 but they are more commonly found farther north. At a rocky spot on 

 the eastern portion of the Middle Banks, between Cape Cod and Cape 

 Ann, large numbers have been taken. A fisherman engaged in ob- 

 taining and curing these fish, had just told him that the firm with 

 which he was connected had this year cured four hundred quintals of 

 cusk ; a larger quantity than Capt. Atwood had supposed had been 

 taken along the whole coast. The flesh is white, and looks as well as 

 good hake or cod ; quite the reverse of the white hake, no fish of the 

 family has such hard bones. There are but few localities where they 

 have been found in any abundance; but off Wells* Bay in Maine, 



