558 



GADOIDS. 



genera ; but we shall not formally notice their distinc- 

 tions. 



COMMON COD (G. morhua). This is the species 

 which is most valuable as an article of commerce. 

 The fins are large, the body is thick toward the head, 

 and tapering to the tail ; the first ray of the anal fin 

 is spinous ; the colour above is grey freckled with 

 yellow ; and that below is white. The lateral line 

 is straight till opposite the vent, but bends toward the 

 tail, where it becomes white and broad. The ter- 

 mination of the caudal fin is nearly straight. It is 

 understood that, in the British seas this fish deposits 

 its spawn in the spring ; but from the fishing season, 

 as afterwards to be mentioned, on the great bank of 

 Newfoundland it is probable that the spawning time 

 there is different. 



The following account of the fishery on the great 

 bank of Newfoundland will show the immense value 

 of the common cod in a commercial point of view : 

 On the east and on the south of the island there are 

 several banks of sand, that rise from the bottom of 

 the river, the greatest of which extends nearly ten 

 degrees from south to north. The stillness and com- 

 paratively mild temperature of the water, in their 

 vicinity, attracts so many shoals of cod that the fish- 

 eries which are established there supply that article 

 to the greater part of Europe. These animals quit 

 the banks about the end of July and during the month 

 of August. The fishing season begins in April, and 

 ends in October. The length of the cod seldom ex- 

 ceeds three feet, and the conformation of its organs 

 is such as to render it nearly indifferent to the choice 

 of its food. The voracity of its appetite prompts it 

 to swallow indiscriminately every substance which it 

 is capable of gorging; glass and even iron have beon 

 found in its stomach ; by inverting itself, it has the 

 power of discharging these indigestible contents. 

 The fishermen range themselves along the side of the 

 vessel, each person being provided with lines and 

 hooks. As soon as a fish is caught, they take out its 

 tongue, and deliver it over to a person in whose 

 hands, after having undergone a certain degree of 

 preparation, he drops it through a hatchway between 

 decks, where part of the back bone is cut off, and the 

 cod, in order to be salted, is thrown through a second 

 hatchway into the hold. Whenever a quantity of 

 fish, sufficient to fill one of the vessels, has been taken 

 and salted, she sails from the banks to the island and 

 unloads her cargo. The ship returns again to her 

 station, and in the course of the season completes 

 four or five different freights. The fish are dried on 

 the island, and larger vessels arrive from England to 

 convey them to the European markets. Much care 

 and attention are required in packing this article ; 

 the greatest precaution is used to preserve it from 

 the moisture of the atmosphere. A person denomi- 

 nated a culler, or inspector, attends the loading of 

 each vessel, in order to see that all the fish are com- 

 pletely cured before they are put into the cargo, 

 which might otherwise be'soon damaged. The price 

 cf dried cod at Newfoundland is commonly fifteen 

 shillings the quintal, and is sold in Europe for about 

 a pound sterling. In a vessel with twelve men there 

 must be 10,000 fish caught, salted, and brought into 

 market from the middle of April to July, else the 

 owners will be excluded from all claim to the esta- 

 plished bounty. Such a crew, however, takes usually 

 during the season more than double that quantity. 

 The English merchants, who are engaged in these 



fisheries, supply the sailors upon credit with whatever 

 they stand in need of, and are repaid at the end of 

 the year with the produce of their industry. Several 

 hundred thousand pounds are thus annually advanced 

 on an object of commerce before it is taken from the 

 bosom of the deep. About 400 ships, amounting to 

 36,000 tons' burthen, and 2000 fishing shallops of 

 20,000 tons, are usually employed during the fishing 

 season. Twenty thousand men from Great Britain 

 and Ireland are engaged in this trade, and several 

 thousands of them, who remain on the island during 

 the winter, are occupied in repairing or building boats 

 and small vessels, or in erecting the scaflblds for dry- 

 ing the cod. The persons that are not seafaring men 

 have been distinguished by the appellation of plan- 

 ters. Some idea of the value of the Newfoundland 

 cod fishery may be formed, by its being mentioned 

 that the British alone have taken in one year as much 

 as nearly 100,000,000 pounds weight, yielding a gross 

 revenue of at least 2,000,000/. sterling. 



The fisheries on our own shores do not, and can- 

 not, afford anything like such a revenue as this from 

 foreign trade ; but, from the way in which the 

 northern parts of the island especially are divided by 

 bays, and from the fish surrounding the shores there 

 in almost every direction, the fishing, if properly 

 carried on, would be far more valuable, in a local 

 point of view, than if there were some one fishing 

 ground of much greater extent than even the whole put 

 together.lt is to be regretted, however, that this fishery, 

 widely spread as it is, easily as it might be carried on, 

 and inexhaustible as one of the supplies of human life 

 from the vast productive powers of the fish, has never 

 been prosecuted with that skill and industry which its 

 importance demands. We have already said, that there 

 is none of the genus so abundant on the south coast 

 of England as to afford more than a very moderate 

 local supply ; and, though the banks between the 

 shores of England and the Netherlands are frequented 

 by numbers of cod, which grow to a large size, and 

 are understood to be finer in flavour than the east 

 coast ones more northerly, and toward and beyond 

 the middle latitudes of the island, yet it does not 

 appear that anything farther than a local supply can 

 be obtained even there. Toward the land, both on 

 the British and the Netherlands side, the cod-fishing 

 ground is intercepted by water apparently rather 

 hallow for cod, and which is accordingly more occu- 

 pied by flat fish, by soles perhaps, more than any 

 ather species toward the British coast, and by turbot 

 probably toward that of the Netherlands. With the 

 exception of the supply for the London markets, and 

 that is, in a great measure, in the hands of monopo- 

 lists, the white fishing appears to be sadly neglected 

 on the east coasts of England ; so that it is doubtful 

 whether a single barrel of white fish is salted for 

 foreign sale annually between Dover and Berwick, 

 while the quantity carried into the interior is astonishi- 

 ngly small, considering the extent and rapidity of 

 and-carriage which is now established in every part 

 of the country. This is probably more sincerely to 

 ae regretted than it is to be remedied ; but, from the 

 nrice at which excellent cod is often sold at the coast 

 owns farther to the north, it is extremely probable 

 that proper attention to the fisheries might procure 

 for any man, at any spot within the four seas, a fair- 

 sized cod fish, in good condition, at an average price 

 of not greatly, if at all, exceeding one shilling. The 

 price on. the" coast, at the places to which we allude, 



