THE COMMON COD. 509 



tall man fully six feet high." They keep much in shoals, 

 and in preference, as it would seem, where the bottom 

 is rocky. The smaller fish hold more to the shore, but 

 the adults, excepting in the breeding season, when they 

 approach somewhat nearer the land, confine themselves 

 almost exclusively to the deeps. 



For the most part the Cod lives at the bottom ; but 

 such is not always the case ; for Kroyer tells us that 

 " during the summer heats these fish often disport them- 

 selves on the surface of the water, and at times lie still 

 there. One may then, as I myself can testify from 

 personal experience, row the boat close up to the fish 

 and strike it with an oar or other weapon, and even 

 take it with the hand when stunned by the blow. A 

 fisherman has assured me that on a fine and calm 

 summer day he saw, in the Great Belt, thousands of 

 these fish thus lying on the surface of the sea." 



As a rule, the Cod holds to salt water, but it would 

 not seem, nevertheless, to be altogether inimical to fresh. 

 I am informed, at least, by M. Prytz that on the 13th 

 October, 1865, when he was trolling for pike in the 

 river Gotha, opposite Gothenburg, where the water is 

 quite fresh, he caught, with a bleak, a fine cod nearly 

 seven pounds in weight. 



The Common Cod ft-eds on worms, crustaceans, small 

 fish, and on almost anything, in short, that comes in its 

 way. According to Kroyer, " it is indisputably one of 

 the most voracious of the finny tribe. It not unfre- 

 quently bites at the hook to possess itself of a very 

 inconsiderable prize, notwithstanding its stomach is 

 already filled with plaice, whitings, haddocks, &c. One 

 often captures a cod so gorged that the half of the fish 

 it has swallowed, but which the stomach itself could not 

 contain, remains fast in its throat. Even during the 

 spawning season it does not lose its appetite ; as a proof 



