110 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



one, which though it falls far behind the stur- 

 geons in size, exceeds them infinitely in numbers 

 and dispersion, and in the vast supply of food 

 with which it furnishes the human race ; it will 

 readily be seen that I am speaking of the Cod- 

 fish* This valuable animal belongs to the class 

 of fishes with a bony skeleton, and the tribe of 

 Jugulars, or those whose ventral fins are nearer 

 the mouth than the pectoral. It frequents shal- 

 lows and sandbanks, between the fortieth and 

 sixtieth degrees of North Latitude, both in the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where it is taken 

 in infinite numbers. The fishery for it employs 

 both European and American seamen and ves- 

 sels in abundance. The most celebrated is 

 that on the great bank of Newfoundland, where 

 thousands of men are employed in catching, 

 salting, and barrelling these fish, and whence 

 they are dispersed principally into the Catholic 

 countries, where they form a considerable portion 

 of the food of the people, especially during lent 

 and other fasts. 



The cod-fish makes for the coast at spawning 

 time, going northward, this takes place towards 

 the end of winter, or the beginning of spring. 

 Leeuwenhoek counted more than nine millions 

 of eggs in a cod-fish of the middle size ; allowing 

 for a large consumption by other fishes which 

 devour them, still enough are left, that when 



1 Gadus Morhua. 



