574 MALACQPTERYGIL 



weigh seventy or eighty pounds. Dr. Storer speaks of one 

 which reached the enormous weight of one hundred and seven 

 pounds ; a cod of fifty pounds, however, is thought to be very 

 large. The Cod-fishery, it is well known, is extensively followed 

 in the Eastern States, particularly Massachusetts ; giving em- 

 ployment to a large number of persons and requiring an amount 

 of tonnage which ranks only second to that employed in the 

 whale fishery. Fishing vessels of all nations are found off the 

 Banks of Newfoundland. Cod fish are taken with hooks or 

 seines sunk to a considerable depth in the sea. The months of 

 May and June are the season for securing them. They are pre- 

 served by simply salting them green, or they are salted and then 

 dried. The oil, oleum jecori, from the liver of the cod, is quite 

 largely used as a medicine, and considered to be highly valua- 

 ble, especially in pulmonary complaints. The roe is also exten- 

 sively used as bait for herrings. Other fishes of this family are 

 the POWER COD, M. minuta, from four to eight inches long ; the 

 TOM COD, or FROST-FISH, M. pruinosa, (Lat. frosty,) a savory 

 fish, and caught in large quantities ; the Haddock, M. ceglefinus, 

 nearly as common in our market as the Cod, but inferior in size 

 and as an article of food ; the WHITING, Merlangus vulgaris, an 

 European species ; (the name Whiting is also applied to the 

 American species, M. albidus, Lat. whitish;) the Burbot, Lota 

 vutgaris, is considerably esteemed ; the Cusk, Brosmius vulgaris, 

 (Storer ;) the Hake or Codling, Phycis Americanus. These are 

 all equally palatable with the Common Cod ; the Coal-fish, M. 

 carbonarius, (Lat. from carbo, a coal,) ranging on both shores of 

 the Atlantic ; M. purpureus, (Lat. purple-colored,) abundant on 

 the shores of New England and sometimes on that of New 

 York, and known under the name of Pollack. 



(23) Planida, or Pleuronectida, (Gr. pkuronectes, side-swim- 

 mer,) the FLAT-FISH FAMILY. 



These, from their want of symmetry, really stand alone among 

 the VERTEBRATES. The eyes are both on one side of the head, 

 usually one above the other, and often varying in size. The 

 upper surface of these fishes resembles the ground in which 

 they lie in wait for their prey ; the under surface, from being 

 never exposed to the action of light, is white. The upper and 

 white surface are really to be regarded as the two sides, right 

 and left, so that instead of being depressed, it is compressed, or 

 flattened vertically, like the Chaetodons, though the latter, like 

 other fishes, swim with the back uppermost, notwithstanding their 

 thinness; but the Turbot swims or grovels along the bottom up- 

 on its side, the colored side, right or left, being uppermost. To 



