897 



MORRHUA. 



MORUS. 



89) 



commences in a line over the anal opening, and terminates opposite 

 the hinder point of the first anal fin ; the third dorsal and the second 

 anal both commence and terminate in the same vertical line ; the tail 

 is truncated. 



The Cod-Fish is an inhabitant of the northern seas. In this 

 country it is found on all parts of the coast ; and " in the United 

 Kingdom alone this fish, in the catching, curing, the partial consump- 

 tion, and sale, supplies employment, food, and profit, to thousands of 

 the human race." 



The account of the mode of fishing, &c., given in that most excellent 

 work the 'History of British Fishes,' is as follows :" The Cod-Fish 

 is very voracious, a favourable circumstance for the fishermen, who 

 experience little difficulty in taking them with almost any bait, when- 

 ever a favourable locality is ascertained. As these fishes generally 

 inhabit deep water, from 25 to 40 and even 50 fathoms, and feed near 

 the ground on various small fishes, worms, Crustacea, and Testacea, 

 their capture is only attempted with lines and hooks. Two sorts of 

 lines, adapted for two very different modes of fishing, are in common 

 use. One mode is by deep-sea lines, called bulters, on the Cornish 

 coast ; these are long lines, with hooks fastened at regular distances 

 along their whole length by shorter and smaller cords called snoods ; 

 these snoods are 6 feet long each, and placed on the long line 12 feet 

 from each other, to prevent the hooks becoming entangled. Near the 

 hooks these shorter lines, or snoods, are formed of separate threads 

 loosely fastened together, to guard against the teeth of the fish. Some 

 variation* occur at different parts of the coast as to the number of 

 hooks attached to the line, as well as in the length of the snood ; but 

 the distance on the long line between two snoods is always double the 

 length of the snood itself. Buoys, buoy-ropes, and anchors or 

 grapples, are fixed one to each end of the long line. The hooks are 

 baited with sand-launce, limpet, whelk, &c. The lines are always laid, 

 or, as it is termed, shot, across the tide, for if the tide runs upon the 

 end of the line, it will force the hooks together, by which the whole 

 tide's fishing is irrecoverably lost : they are deposited generally about 

 the time of slack water, between each ebb and flow, and are taken up 

 or hauled for examination after having been left for about 6 hours, or 

 one flood or ebb. 



" An improvement upon this more common plan was some years 

 ago suggested by Mr. Cobb, who was sent to the Shetlands by the 

 Commissioners appointed for the Improvement of the Fisheries. He 

 fixed a small piece of cork within a certain distance of the hook 

 (about 1 2 inches), which suspended and floated the bait so as to pre- 

 vent its falling on tlie ground, by which method the bait was more 

 freely shown to the fish, by the constant and variable motion produced 

 upon it by the tide. In the old way the bait was frequently hid from 

 the fish by being covered with sea-weed, or was consumed by some of 

 the numerous star-fish and crabs that infest the ground. 



" The fishermen, when not engaged in shooting, hauling, or rebait- 

 ing the long lines, fish with hand-lines, armed with two hooks kept 

 apart by a strong piece of wire ; each fisherman manages two lines, 

 holding one line in each hand ; a heavy weight is attached to the 

 lower end of the line, not far from the hooks, to keep the bait down 

 near the ground, where the fish principally feed. These two modes 

 of line-fishing are practised to a great extent nearly all round the 

 coast; and enormous quantities of cod, haddock, whiting, coal-fish, 

 pollack, hake, ling, torsk, and all the various fiat-fish, usually called 

 by the general name of white-fish, are taken. 



" Of cod-fish alone the number taken in one day is very consider- 

 able ; from 400 to 550 fish have been caught on the banks of New- 

 foundland in 10 or 11 hours by one man; and a master of fishing- 

 vessels trading from the London market told me that eight men 

 fishing under his orders off the Dogger Bank, in 25 fathoms water, 

 have taken eighty score of cod in one day. These are brought to 

 Gravesend in stout cutter-rigged vessels of 80 or 100 tons burthen, called 

 store-boats, built for this traffic, with a largo well, in which the fish 

 are preserved alive ; and of these a portion is sent up to Billingsgate 

 market by each night-tide. 



" Well-boat?, for preserving alive the fish taken at sea, came into 

 use in this country early in the last century ; they are said to have 

 been first built at Harwich about 1712. The store-boats remain as 

 low down as Oravesend, because the water there is sufficiently mixed 

 to keep the fish alive. If they were to come higher up, it would 

 kill them. 



" A change has lately taken place from the cod having shifted their 

 ground. Formerly the Gravesend and Barking fishermen obtained no 

 cod nearer than the Orkneys or the Dogger Bank ; but for the last 

 two or three years the s'upply for the London market has been obtained 

 by going no farther than the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coasts, and 

 even between that and London, where previously very few fish could 

 be obtained .... 



" In a natural state the cod spawns about February ; and nine 

 millions of ova have been found in the roe of one female. The cod 

 is in the greatest perfection as food from the end of October to 

 in". It may, in fact, be said of the whole of the family of 

 Oadidct, that they are in the best condition for the table in the cold 

 months of the year. The young of Ihe cod, about 6 inches long, 

 abound at the mouth of the Thames and Medway throughout the 

 summer : a autumn advances they gain size and strength, and are 



HAT. U1ST. D1T. VOL. III. 



caught, from 12 to 16 inches in length, by lines, near the various sand- 

 banks in the channel. When of whiting size, they are called Codlings 

 and Skinners ; and when larger, Tamlin Cod." 



M. (eglefinus, Cuv., the Haddock, a common fish in our markets, is 

 of a smaller size than the cod, which it greatly resembles. In a 

 specimen 20 inches long, the length of the head, compared with that 

 of the body, without including the tail, is as one to two and a half; 

 the depth of the body is less than the length of the head : the fins 

 are situated nearly as in the cod, but they are proportionally higher, 

 especially the anterior dorsal, which is pointed : the tail fin has its 

 posterior edge emarginated. Its colour is usually paler than the 

 common cod, the back is palish-brown, the belley is silvery white, and 

 the lateral line is black ; a blackish patch is situated on the side of 

 the body behind the pectoral fins, and sometimes extends over the 

 back, and unites with the corresponding spot on the opposite side ; the 

 dorsal fins and tail are grayish, and the pectoral and ventral fins are 

 paler. 



This fish frequents for the most part the same localities as the 

 common cod, being found in the northern seas. It occurs all round 

 the coast of Great Britain and Ireland, but is said not to exist either 

 iu the Baltic or Mediterranean. It is chiefly caught with long lines 

 baited with pieces cut from a 'herring or sand-launce. 



In the 'Regne Animal,' it is said that when the Haddock is salted, 

 it is called Hadou, after the English name Hadok ; and in the ' History 

 of British Fishes,' Mr. Yarrell states, that " the French fishermen call 

 the haddock Hadot," whence probably our name was derived. 



M. callarias (Gadus callarias), the Dorse, the Variable Cod. This 

 species is admitted by Mr. Yarrell into the list of British species, 

 although the only authentic instances of its capture have been at 

 Antrim and Cork in Ireland. It appears to be a well-known fish in 

 the Baltic, and is frequently called the Baltic Cod. It differs from 

 the common Cod, and is subject to great varieties in its characters, 

 hence its name of Variable Cod. 



M. luaca (Asellus luscus, Willughby ; Gadus luscus, Linnaeus), the 

 Bib-Pout and Whiting-Pout. The Bib and Pout have sometimes 

 been regarded as different fishes, but Yarrell describes them as 

 one. This fish is well known on the English coasts. From a 

 dark spot at the origin of the pectoral fin in which it resembles 

 the Whiting, it is often called Whiting-Pout. It is called Pout, 

 Bib, Blens, and Blinds from the power it possesses of inflating a 

 membrane which covers the eyes and other parts about the head. 

 The flesh is excellent, and like most of the Gadidce it is best 

 eaten in November and December. In form the Whiting Pout is the 

 deepest for its length of the British Gadidce. The upper jaw is the 

 longest ; the band of teeth of several rows, those formiug the outer 

 row the largest ; under jaw with a single row; the barbule at the 

 chin rather long ; various mucous pores about both jaws ; the eyes 

 large ; the orbits covered with a loose membrane which the fish has 

 the power of distending ; the diameter of the eye equal to one-third 

 of the length of the head ; the irides orange colour ; the dorsal and 

 abdominal lines exhibit considerable convexity; the body tapers 

 rapidly from the line of the ending of the second dorsal and first 

 anal fins ; the colour of the head, back, aud upper part of the sides, 

 a yellow reddish-brown, becoming lighter on the belly, aud tinged in 

 places with bluish-gray ; at the base of the pectoral fins a black spot ; 

 scales small and deciduous ; posterior half of the lateral line straight, 

 then rising in a curve over the pectoral fiu ; all the fins, except the 

 ventrals, dusky-brown ; the veutrals nearly white ; the first anal Sn 

 in large-sized specimens edged with fine blue. 



M. minuta (Gadus minutus, Linnicus), the Poor or Power-Cod. 

 Though similar to the Pout it differs in many points. It is not so 

 deep when of the same length ; the first anal fin does not begin so 

 far forward as in the Pout by nearly the whole length of the base 

 of the first dorsal fin ; the longest rays of the third dorsal fiu aud 

 the seccnd anal fin are shorter than the bases of the respective fius, 

 and do not, therefore, produce the same vertically truncated appear- 

 auce as in the same relative fins of the Pout; and the barbule at the 

 chin is much shorter. 



This fish is abundant in the Baltic, where its presence rejoices the 

 fishermen, as it is usually the precursor of the Cod. It is the 

 smallest of the Cod family, and although on account of its size it is 

 more usually employed for bait, it is very good eating. It is scarce 

 in America. 



(Yarrell, British Fishes.) 



MORSE. [PaocwjE.] 



MORUS, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Moracece. 

 The flowers are monoecious ; the stamiuiferous flowers spiked ; calyx 

 4-parted, spreading, membranous ; the stamens 4, larger than the calyx, 

 with the rudiments of an ovary between their bases ; the pistiliferous 

 flowers clustered ; sepals 4, scale-like, imbricating each other, 2 being 

 opposite and external to the other 2 ; stigmas 2, linear, glandular; 

 ovule solitary, suspended. Fruit consistiug of the latter flowers 

 become fleshy and grown together, each inclosing a dry membranous 

 pericarp. Seed pendulous ; embryo curved like a horse-shoe, amongst 

 fleshy albumen, with the radicle directed to the hilum. The species 

 are trees. 



M. nigra, the Black or Common Mulberry, is a small tree with very 

 rugged bark. The .young shoots ara downy ; the leaves roundish, 



3 M 



