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CHAP. XXV. 



VERTEBR ATA FISHES. 



Edible Fishes. The Cod Family. Flat Fish. The Herring 

 and Pilchard Family. Pilchard Fishing. 



HAVING- given our attention to some of those 

 fish most remarkable for their structure, or some 

 other peculiarity, we shall now notice a few spe- 

 cimens of those whose immense numbers and 

 whose edible qualities render them of the greatest 

 value to mankind. 



Among the most valuable of this class of fishes 

 are those comprehended in the cod and haddock 

 family Gadidce which include several varieties, 

 such as the haddock, coal-fish, rockling, ling, and 

 various kinds of whitings, hake, and others of the 

 same order. It will suffice to mention the cod 

 properly so called, as being a familiar type of the 

 order to which it belongs. 



These fishes are to be found on every part of the 

 shores of Britain and Ireland, and appear to be 

 most plentiful off the northern coasts of Scotland. 

 They chiefly inhabit places where the water is 

 from forty to fifty fathoms in depth. They are 

 extremely voracious, devouring fish of all kinds, 

 molluscs and Crustacea, crabs of considerable size 



