GADO 



rally speaking, cheaper than any other product of the 

 sea, or even of the land, which remains equally long 

 in season. The flesh of the whole of them is remark- 

 able for its whiteness ; and they are on this account 

 called white-fish, and the establishments for the cap- 

 ture of them the white fishery. 



They are rare, if found at all, in the tropical seas ; 

 but they are very abundant in the cold and temperate 

 ones, the north Atlantic, up almost if not altogether 

 to the polar ice, being the grand place of their 

 resort. When they are most in season they are, 

 generally speaking, gregarious, resorting to the banks 

 in countless multitudes ; but it is generally understood 

 that when they quit those banks they do not remove 

 to any very great distance, so that by judicious man- 

 agement on the part of the fishers, it is probable that 

 some of the species might be found in abundant 

 numbers and in good condition all the year round. 



In a genus so numerous there must of course be 

 different degrees of productive power in different 

 species, but taken on the whole they are among the 

 most prolific of fishes. The common cod fish, which is, 

 taking both quantity and quality into account, the 

 most valuable of the whole, multiplies at the rate of 

 between two and three millions at a single spawning ; 

 so that it is altogether impossible for any fishing 

 which men can carry on very much to thin their 

 numbers. 



The general characters of the cod family are : 

 the body moderately elongated but tapering con- 

 siderably to the tail, and a little compressed laterally ; 

 the skin covered with soft scales, of medium size or 

 rather smaller, but the skin of the head without any 

 scales ; the jaws and the posterior part of the vomer 

 covered with teeth, which are of unequal size, but 

 generally rather small, and placed in several rows 

 arranged card fashion, or the tooth in the one row 

 against the interval in the other ; the gills and gill- 

 openings are very large ; the gills consisting of seven 

 rays ; all the fins are soft, with the exception of a 

 single ray in the anal fin in some of the species ; in 

 general there are two or three dorsal fins, of which 

 one or two are in rear of the vent ; the caudal fin is 

 very distinct ; and the ventral fins are attached to the 

 throat, and pointed at the extremities. In some of 

 the species the gape is very wide ; in all the stomach 

 is in the form of a large pouch, very strong, and there 

 are numerous coscal appendages, and a long intestinal 

 canal. They are all provided with a large air bag, 

 which is sometimes notched or toothed at the sides. 

 The species are so numerous, however, and differ in 

 so many of the details of their character, that it is 

 impossible so to frame a general description as that 

 it will meet them all. 



Though these fishes are seasonably gregarious upon 

 the banks, in the same manner as the flat fishes, they 

 inhabit places of somewhat different character even 

 then, and at other times they are much more discursive 

 through the waters. It does not appear that they 

 feed much upon ground substances, but rather upon 

 the fry of other fishes ; but in this respect the habit 

 varies considerably along with the species. In some, 

 as in the common cod, the young are rarely seen 

 near the shores, but appear rather to reside near the 

 banks. Others, again, in their young state, literally 

 swarm on the shores, and in the harbours, and appear 

 to prefer running water, whether of tide or of current 

 to that which is more still. 



While some of the species are foomd only on barks, 



. 557 



or where there are rich bottoms, others of them fre- 

 quent rocky grounds, and those which do so are, 

 generally speaking, smaller in size and firmer in their 

 flesh than the inhabitants of the banks. Taking the 

 British seas altogether, there are perhaps more species 

 on the south coasts ; but the numbers increase north- 

 wards. The sea on the east coast, which is full of 

 banks, the mouths of the rivers, and also in mid- 

 seas where the currents of tide meet and form their 

 deposits, these fishes are very abundant. In this sea 

 they are, however, usually found at a good many 

 miles distance from the land, unless it be in the 

 species which resort to the shores, and which are 

 always inferior in quality to the far sea ones. In the 

 western seas they are perhaps even more numerous ; 

 and along the west coast of Ireland, and especially on 

 the west of Scotland among the isles, where the dis- 

 turbed currents of tide have deposited numerous 

 small banks, they are found in numbers which are 

 almost incredible, not on the banks only but in the 

 channels, and openings of the sea lochs, or deep and 

 narrow bays by which the coasts there are so much 

 indented. They are also exceedingly numerous 

 among the northern islands ; arid perhaps there are 

 as abundant fishings near the Shetland islands as in 

 any other part of the British seas. Indeed, white 

 fish of some species or other, either fresh from the 

 sea, or dried in the sun, or salted, forms a very large 

 item in the every day food of the people there. The 

 same may be said of Iceland, of the Faroe islands, 

 and of many parts of the coast of Norway. The 

 grand head quarters of the race, at least of the com- 

 mon cod, in an especial manner, seems to be the great 

 banks of Newfoundland, which are, perhaps, taken 

 altogether, the largest deposits of sand, gravel, and 

 mud, which is any where to be met with. From this, 

 they spread themselves in the direction of the current 

 of the water, which may be said to set from this bank 

 across the Atlantic, and to extend as far to the south 

 as the shores of the bay of Biscay. The species 

 which are most abundant differ a good deal at dif- 

 ferent places of this wide range of the sea ; but still, 

 taken on the whole, they are more numerous here 

 than in any other part of the world ; and they give 

 a value to those seas which no other seas can be said 

 to possess. 



When we say that the range of these fishes extends 

 as far southward as the bay of Biscay, we must not 

 be understood as implying that they are distributed 

 in equal numbers through the whole of this range ; 

 for the numbers diminish as we proceed southwards, 

 while the great mass may be regarded as not extend- 

 ing much further to the south than the coasts of 

 Scotland. The species most abundant and best, to 

 the south of this, is understood to be the common 

 cod ; and there is no fishing on the south coast of 

 England for any of them which can be regarded as 

 very productive, unless it be for the whiting, which is 

 far from being one of the most valuable. Some rare 

 ones are occasionally met with on the southern shores 

 that have not been noticed in the north ; but then, on 

 the other hand, there are several so numerous in the 

 north as to be taken both for local consumption and 

 for sending dried or salted to other markets, which 

 are very rare in the south. We shall be better able, 

 however, to notice the few particulars with regard to 

 locality which our limits will afford, when we come to 

 speak of the different species. The genus has some- 

 times been divided into as many as seven sub- 



