THE FORKED BEARDS. 525 



This fish, like the Bergylt, or Norway Haddock 

 (Sebastes Norvegicus), and others that habitually dwell 

 in great depths, is, as already mentioned, so affected by 

 sudden tempests as often to be found in large numbers 

 dead and dying on the surface of the water ; the greater 

 portion with their eyes started from the sockets, and the 

 stomach protruding through the mouth. Hence, in parts 

 of Norway, a sudden tempest is called by the fishermen 

 Brosme-for, or torsk-tempest. In parenthesis I may men- 

 tion that once, when I was crossing the Cattegat in a 

 sailing-packet during a very severe winter, we fell in with 

 hundreds and hundreds of ling floating dead on the 

 surface of the sea, then in great part covered with drift 

 ice, and many of which we secured and ate. There 

 being no mark of violence on their bodies, I was utterly 

 at a loss to account for this phenomenon, and it was not 

 until of late years that I have been enlightened on 

 the subject. 



The Great Forked Beard (Vanliy Bartel, Sw. ; Phycis 

 furcatus, Flem.), which is found in the Mediterranean, 

 has not yet been identified in the Bohus Skargard or in 

 the Cattegat, but is occasionally met with on the western 

 coast of Norway, where it attains to a length of from 

 eighteen inches to two feet, and is captured along with 

 the Cod. In the Danish seas and in the Baltic it has 

 not been recognized. Its habits seem quite unknown to 

 Northern naturalists. 



The Lesser Forked Beard, or Tadpole-Fish (Svart 

 Padd-Torsk, literally, black toad-cod ; Smed, or black- 

 smith, Sw. ; Sten-Brosme, i. e. rock-torsk, Norvv. ; Rani- 

 ceps trifurcatus, Flem.), is not uncommon in the Bohus 

 Skiirgard and the Cattegat, or on the western coast, 

 from the Sound to at least as far north as Sondmor 

 (lat. 62). According to Kroyer, it has also been met 

 with in the Baltic. It is usually from nine to twelve 



