THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 215 
to the fair of Beaucaire, from whence it is transported in small 
tin boxes to all parts of the world. 
The Cod-family, to which among others, the Dorse, the 
Haddock, the Whiting, the Hake, the Ling, and other valuable 
fishes belong, ranks next to that of the herrings in importance 
to man. In the seas with which Europeans are best acquainted 
the common Cod, the chief representative of the tribe, is found 
universally, from Iceland to very nearly as far south as Gibraltar, 
but appears most abundantly on the eastern side of the American 
continent, and among its numerous 
islands, from 40° up to 66° N. lat., 
where it may be said to hold do- 
minion from the outer edge of the = 
great banks of Newfoundland, which nae 
are more than three hundred miles 
from land, to the verge of every creek and cove of the bounding 
coast. To support such a mass of living beings, the ocean sends 
forth its periodical masses of other 
living beings. At one season the cod 
is accompanied by countless myriads 
of the Capelin (Salmo arcticus), 
and at another by equal hosts of 
a molluscous animal, the Cuttle-fish (Sepia loligo), called in 
Newfoundland the squid. The three animals are migratory, 
and man, who stations himself 
on the shore for their combined 
destruction, conducts his move- 
ments according to their mi- 
grations, capturing millions upon 
millions of capelins and squids, 
Ling, 
Cod. 
to serve as a bait for the capture of millions of cods. In the 
United Kingdom alone this fish, in the catching, the curing, 
the partial consumption, and sale, supplies employment, food, 
and profit to thousands of the human race; but the banks of 
Newfoundland are the chief scene of its destruction. As soon 
as spring appears, England sends forth 2000 ships, with 30,000 
men, across the Atlantic, towards those teeming shallows; France 
about one-half the number; and the Americans as many as both 
together. .On an average, each ship is reckoned to catch about 
40,000 fishes; and we may form some idea of the voracity, as 
Q2 
