fISHES. 



233 



The common Cod is so very voracloiis, that five-and-tliirty 

 crabs, none smaller than hall-a-crown, have been taken out of 



Fig. 203.— Cod. 



the stomach of one fish.* But this very voracity makes the 

 capture more easy, as almost any bait is acceptable. The great 

 value of the Newfoundland Cod fisher}'^ is well known. The 

 produce in 183G was 860,351 quintals of fish, t each quintal 

 being a hundred pounds. The oil which they yield is also a 

 product of commercial and medicinal importance. 



Clupeidce, the family of the Herring. X — Every reader of a 

 newspaper must be familiar with the term, " Whitebait din- 

 ner," § as indicating a repast held in high estimation by th«? 

 Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and by the learned 

 Fellows of the Koyal Society ; and for which the ministers of 

 the Sovereign pay annually a visit to Blackwall. This little 

 iish {Fig. 204), so prized for its delicious flavour, was for- 



Fig. 2(H.— Whitebait. 



• By Mr. Couch. Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 145. 



f Fenny CyclopaHlia. 



X In the Cod, the Haddock, the Whiting, and other fishes belonging to 

 the families we have been considering, the ventral fins are immediately 

 below the pectorals. In the Herring, the Salmon, the Pike, and others 

 belonging to families now about to be enumerated, the ventral fins are at- 

 tached to the abdomen, and are situated far behind the pectorals. This 

 circumstance enables us to divide such of the soft-rayed fishes (malacop- 

 terygii), as are possessed of \-entral tins into two groups — the abdominal 

 and sub-brachial, according to the situation of the fins. 



§ " Feasts which would have made tlie ichthj'ophagous epicures of old die 

 of envy." — Fokbes axu Spuait's Lycia, vol. ii. p. 91. 



