562 



GADOIDS. 



be resident in those seas, and is very rare in the 

 north. It is more of a yellowish colour than that of the 

 northern cod, its head is smaller and longer, and it 

 perhaps also attains a larger size. On the banks we 

 believe it is always taken by the hook and line ; but 

 in the Channel it is hauled for. 



On the rocky grounds in the middle latitudes on 

 the east side of the island, and probably also on the 

 west, in the channel between Britain and Ireland, 

 there is another variety, known as " rock cod," which 

 it of a much redder colour, smaller in size, and much 

 firmer in flesh. This one frequents much the beds of 

 sea weed, and is understood to feed a good deal upon 

 Crustacea, especially crabs at the time when they 

 cast their shells. The head of this is not quite so 

 much elongated as that of what we have from its 

 locality called the southern cod, but it is rather more 

 so than the head of the northern. It does not appear 

 that this variety is very discursive from its locality ; 

 for though it can be had abundantly on the rocky 

 bottoms on the northern part of the English coast, and 

 the southern part of the Scottish, it is found only as 

 a straggler in the south ; and \ve believe that the 

 same is the case in the north. In as far as popular 

 observation is concerned, these two varieties are easily 

 distinguished from each other; but they agree in all 

 the characters upon which naturalists found the 

 species. 



The third is the northern cod, and which is some- 

 times called " Scotch cod," it being most plentiful on 

 the coast of Scotland, though, as we have mentioned, 

 the rock or red cod is also found there, and this one 

 occurs on the more northerly parts of the English 

 coast. This one has the head much larger in pro- 

 portion, that is to say, much thicker and rounder ; 

 the gape and the gill- openings are also wider, and 

 the body tapers nearly the whole way from the gill- 

 openings to the caudal fin. This is the one which is 

 found both on the east and west coasts of Scotland. It 

 appears to be more discursive than the others ; and 

 it is probably the same which is met with on the bank 

 of Newfoundland, and generally in the Atlantic out- 

 side the British islands. Its quality is understood to 

 depend a good deal on the place where it is taken, 

 being best where the water is deepest and has most 

 current, though the size is perhaps inferior there. 

 Even in this, however, there is no specific difference 

 from the others ; and from what we know of the 

 effects of different waters in changing the qualities of 

 trout, and other fresh water fishes, we may naturally 

 suppose that not cod only but all others will be 

 affected by similar causes in the sea. 



The other point to which we would call attention, 

 and it is by far the more important of the two in a 

 general point of view, is the geographical distribu- 

 tion ) not only the cod, properly so called, but all the 

 more valuable species of the whole genus, are con- 

 fined to the temperate and cold latitudes of the 

 Atlantic. The same may be said of the herring 

 family, and indeed of all those fishes which have 

 value in a commercial point of view, or in any other 

 point of view than that of merely supplying the peo- 

 ple who live near the shores. 



The only species, we believe, which is met with in 

 any part of the Pacific is the coal-fish, to be after- 

 wards described, and though it is exceedingly nume- 

 rous upon many parts of our coasts in the young state, 

 and especially "so in the north when full-grown, it is 

 far from being the best of the genus ; so far indeed 



that, in point of flavour and also of nutriment, it may 

 probably be accounted the very worst of the whole. 



The fishes of this family, besides being inferior in 

 their qualities, are also far more prolific than any 

 others ; and as they are, either seasonally or in the 

 different species, both littoral and pelagic, they occupy 

 a greater breadth of sea as their pasture than any 

 others. The common cod has been already men- 

 tioned as an instance of very great productiveness, 

 but it is by no means the most productive of the 

 family. The ling, a more northerly fish, and one 

 which is in some respects superior, very superior 

 when salted and dried, has still more eggs in the roe 

 than the cod, the number being between nine and 

 ten millions, a rate of increase on which all the fishing 

 that can be practised cannot have the slightest per- 

 ceptible effect ; for, if it had scope for full working, 

 it has power enough for turning the whole matter of 

 the earth into ling in the course of a very short period 

 of years. This is of course, practically speaking, im- 

 possible, but still the power exists, and the existence 

 of such a power is constantly seen working for the 

 benefit of man, in so far as he has industry and skill 

 for taking advantage of it. 



One cannot fail in being struck with the peculiar 

 fact that all this vast productiveness of food in the 

 sea should be concentrated into the northern part of 

 the Atlantic ; for the vast shoals of the cod family, 

 and we may add those of the herrings, are confined 

 to between the fortieth and sixtieth degrees of north 

 latitude, or are found only accidentally and straggling 

 beyond those limits. 



This, however, is not the only or even the especial 

 peculiarity of this portion of the sea ; for, though it 

 is foreign to our present purpose, we may just remark 

 in passing that the Atlantic is, above all others, the 

 ocean whose showers and gales produce fertility on 

 the adjoining lands. It is especially the ocean of 

 tides and currents ; its shores abound more than any 

 others in creeks and bays ; and the quantity of sup- 

 ply which it receives from rivers is greater than that 

 of any equal extent of sea, scarcely less indeed than 

 that of all the other seas on the surface of the globe. 

 It is thus the best for navigation, and the promotion 

 of that intelligence and industry which are the results 

 of a free, easy, and speedy communication between the 

 inhabitants of different lands. This is a very delight- 

 ful subject ; but it would be contrary to the plan of 

 the present work to enter farther upon it in detail, 

 though we heartily recommend it to the attention on 

 our readers, and so revert to our more immediate 

 ubject. 



If we were to follow the sub-divisions of the genus 

 Gadus, the next is Merlangus, the whiting section, 

 agreeing with the cod in the number and arrange- 

 ment of their fins, and differing, in the common cha- 

 racters of classification, only in having no beard or 

 fleshy appendage to the lower jaw, whereas the true 

 cod have one, and some of the others, to be mentioned 

 afterwards, have more. The typical species is, 



THE WHITING (G. merlangus}. This is a very 

 common species on most parts of the British shores ; 

 and by fishing nearer the shores at one season, and 

 farther out at another, it may, generally speaking, be 

 caught in tolerable condition the whole year round. 

 It is a smaller fish than the more valuable of the true 

 cod, and its flesh is, generally speaking, soft and 

 rather insipid; but when in very prime condition, 

 which it is in the spring and summer months, it is 



