COMMON COD. 233 



.tending from sixteen to sixty fathoms. The best season 

 , I of fishing for them here, is considered to be from about 

 | the beginning of February until the end of April. Cod 

 5 j are likewise very abundant off several of the northern 

 ; parts of the British coast. It has been observed that 

 they are oftentimes found to be fattest, and in greatest 

 numbers, in those places where the heaviest sea runs, 

 and amongst the most dangerous rocks. In the European 

 seas the Cod usually begin to spawn in the month of 

 January, and deposit their eggs in rough ground, among 

 rocks. And so extremely prolific are they, that Leewen- 

 hoek reckoned in the roe of a middling-sized fish, more 

 than nine millions of eggs ! Thus bountiful has the Great 

 Author of Nature been in preserving a species of fish, 

 which is of such abundant use to mankind ! They feed 

 on all kinds of small crabs and lobsters, on small fish, 

 and various other marine animals ; and their shoals are so 

 immensely numerous, that they are frequently compelled 

 to devour each other. In Newfoundland there is a great 

 trade for Cod-fish, which are exported, part dried and 

 part salted, in barrels, not only to England, but to differ- 

 ent parts of the Continent. The air-bladders, which have 

 the name of sounds, and the tongues, are here also salted 

 for sale ; and oil is extracted from the livers. In Norway 

 the eggs, or roes, are salted, packed in small casks, and 

 sold, principally to the Dutch, for the purpose of bait for 

 anchovies and some other kinds of fish. Before the com- 

 mencement of the French revolution, there were from 

 twenty to thirty thousand barrels of Cod annually ex- 

 ported from Bergen. The usual weight of these fish is 

 from fourteen to forty pounds ; but one was caught at 

 Scarborough, in the year 1775, which weighed seventy- 

 eight pounds. 



