52 THE GREAT COD BANK. 



quantities to foreign merchants, who convey them into 

 the interior of Europe." 



The great rendezvous of the cod appears to be the cele- 

 brated bank which lies off the island of Newfoundland, 

 and is known as the Great Cod Bank. It forms a sub- 

 marine ridge, about one hundred miles in length by sixty 

 miles in breadth. So enormous at times is the accumu- 

 lation of fish in its vicinity, that the fishermen can do 

 little else from morn to night than cast the line, and haul 

 it in, and open the struggling prey to bait their hooks 

 afresh with its entrails. They are packed together so 

 closely that a line, dropped haphazard into their midst, 

 frequently hooks a dozen or more by some part or other 

 of their body. And it is affirmed that a single fisher will 

 take from three hundred to four hundred fish a day. 



The voracity of the cod is remarkable. It feeds upon 

 molluscs, crustaceans, the herring, the whiting, and even 

 its own kind, besides an infinite variety of smaller fishes. 

 It flings itself indifferently on every object that conies 

 within its purview ; not despising, in case of need, an 

 ounce or so of lead. And, according to Anderson, 

 nature has endowed it with a facility which, indeed, this 

 voracity renders almost indispensable of vomiting, so to 

 speak, its stomach ; of turning it inside out, in front of 

 its mouth ; and after emptying it, and cleansing it in the 

 sea-water, returning it into its proper position, after 

 which it recommences eating. And its digestive organs 

 act with so much rapidity that in less than six hours it 

 assimilates any kind of food, however indigestible. We 

 conclude, therefore, that dyspeptic complaints are un- 

 known among the Gadidse ! 



Almost every part of the cod, as Cuvier tells us, is 



