504 FISHES. 



the specific gravity ; for the spine, medulla spinalis, muscles, fin, 

 and air-bladder, are continued through its whole length. Besides 

 which part, there is a membrane passing from the spine to that fin 

 which runs along the belly or lower edge of the animal. This 

 membrane is broad at the end next to the head, terminating in a 

 point at the tail. It is a support for the abdominal fin, gives a 

 greater surface of support for the organ, and makes a partition 

 between the organs of the two opposite sides." 



\_Bloch. Shaw, J. Jlunter* 



SECTION IV. 



Cod-fish. 



Radus morhua, Linn. 



This highly important and prolific species, which furnishes em- 

 ployment for so many thousands, and forms so considerable a part 

 of the subsistence of mankind, is an inhabitant of the northern 

 geas, where it resides in immense shoals, performing many migra- 

 tions at stated seasons, and visiting in succession the different 

 coasts of Europe and America. Its history is so well detailed by 

 Mr. Pennant, that little can be added to what that author has col- 

 lected in his British and Arctic Zoology. 



<c The general rendezvous of the cod-fish," says Mr. Pennant, 

 Ci is on the banks of Newfoundland, and the other sand-banks that 

 lie off the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New England. 

 They prefer those situations on account of the quantity of worms 

 produced in those sandy bottoms, which tempts them to resort there 

 for food ; but another cause of this particular attachment to those 

 spots is their vicinity to the polar seas, where they return to 

 spawn : there they deposit their roe in full security, but want 

 of food forces them, as soon as the first more southern seas are 

 open, to repair thither for subsistence. Few are taken north of 

 Iceland, but on the south and west coasts they abound: they are 

 again found to swarm on the coasts of Norway, in the Baltic, off 

 Orkney and the Western Isles ; after which their numbers decrease, 

 in proportion as they advance towards the south, when they seem 

 quite to cease before they reach the mouth of the Straits of Gi- 

 braltar." 



