510 THE COMMON^ COD. 



of which I found, when at the Lofoden Islands, in an 

 immense cod of four feet and a half in length, no less 

 than three other cod fish of the usual size, say some 

 thirty inches in length. 



" In consequence of its voracity," the Professor goes 

 on to say, " one readily perceives that it is not fastidious in 

 its food, hut swallows almost everything it meets with ; 

 and it is said that when digestible substances are not to 

 be had, even such as merely serve to till its stomach. 

 One therefore finds in the latter not only seaweed, but 

 gravel and stones ; and at the end of the spawning 

 season, when it is famished and debilitated, this might 

 almost be called the normal state of things. Sometimes 

 the stones are so large that they would seem to cause 

 the fish much inconvenience, if not death. In the 

 stomach of a very lean cod of two pounds (equal to 2|^ib. 

 avoirdupois) in weight, taken in the Sound in October 

 1837, I found several stones, of which the largest was 

 a particularly sharp and angular flint, of fourteen lines in 

 length and eight in breadth, which it is hardly conceivable 

 could have passed through the intestinal canal. It is 

 therefore not at all unusual to meet with cod fish whose 

 stomach and intestinal canal are in a diseased state, perfo- 

 rated by sharp substances, indurated and covered with great 

 numbers of knots and excrescences, all of which would 

 seem to have their origin in the extreme greediness of 

 the fish. Nevertheless, I will not take it for proved that 

 the Cod swallows stones and similar substances for the 

 purpose of staying its hunger, it not being impossible 

 that these may get down its throat when seizing at the 

 bottom the various small animals on which it preys. 

 Small cod fish, which live amongst Laminarice, appear 

 to feed in preference on small crustaceans ; and hence 

 the fish may acquire its colour and good flavour." 



Kroyer, when speaking of the Lofoden Islands, tells us. 



