35° 
CHAP TERA OX x Vat. 
THE COD. 
THE herrings and the pilchards may be classed among the small 
inhabitants of the ocean; but their importance is advanced by 
the vast population of their tribes, and though lilliputians in the 
oceanic world, yet they are a notorious people. But the Cod-fish 
THE COD. 
(Morrhua vulgaris.) 
are both large and numerous. They frequent the northern seas, 
and every year, about the middle of January, arrive in vast 
numbers among the Lofoden Islands, to spawn; but when they 
reach the neighbourhood of the shore, instead of enjoying a quiet 
time of retirement, they are attacked on every side, and a terrible 
slaughter awaits them. Yet no amount of destruction seems to 
thin their ranks; they yearly reassemble in incredible numbers 
on the summit of that submarine mountain, the Newfoundland 
Bank, where, for a space of 600 miles long, and 680 broad, the 
sea is all but alive with them. The appearance of the cod is too 
well known to need description. It belongs to the Gadide@, a 
family characterised by their slender and pointed ventral fins. 
We have already cited the cod as an example of extraordinary 
fecundity. Leuwenhoeck has calculated that a moderate sized 
female can carry 9,384,000 eggs. The mind is lost in interminable 
numbers, when we endeavour to calculate what would be the 
