182 GADID^E. 



breaking the line, it survived to swallow another hook and 

 be taken several days after." 



The most usual length of the Ling is from three to four 

 feet ; Pennant mentions having heard of one which mea- 

 sured seven feet ; and Mr. Couch has known them weigh 

 seventy pounds. 



Not having an opportunity of describing from a specimen, 

 I copy, by permission, the description of the Rev. Mr. 

 Jenyns, as given in his Manual of the British Vertebrata, 

 page 458, species 133. 



" Body slender, more elongated than that of the Hake ; 

 roundish : head flat : gape large : lower jaw shorter than the 

 upper, with a single barbule at its extremity : teeth in the 

 upper jaw small, and very numerous ; those in the lower 

 jaw longer and larger, forming but a single row : lateral 

 line straight : scales small, firmly adhering to the skin : two 

 dorsal fins of equal height ; the first short, commencing 

 near the head, not pointed as in the Hake, but with most 

 of the rays even ; second long, immediately behind the first, 

 reaching nearly to the caudal ; the posterior portion the 

 most elevated : vent in a line with the eighth or ninth ray 

 of the second dorsal fin : anal fin immediately behind it, 

 long, resembling the second dorsal fin, and terminating on 

 the same line with it : caudal rounded at the extremity. 



" The fin-rays are 



D. 15. 65. : P. 15 : V. 6 : A. 97 : C. 39. 



" The back and sides grey, inclining to olive ; sometimes 

 cinereous, without the olivaceous tinge ; belly silvery : ven- 

 trals white ; dorsal and anal edged with white ; caudal 

 marked near the end with a transverse black bar; the ex- 

 treme tip white." 



