106 FISH. 



the months of October, November, and December ; 

 it spawns in February, and is wonderfully pro- 

 lific as many as 9,000,000 ova have been found 

 in the roe of one female. All the family of 

 Gadidse are in the best condition for table during 

 the cold season of the year ; the young ones 

 abound at the mouth of the Thames and Mcdway 

 during the whole summer they are then about 

 six inches in length; but as autumn advances, 

 they gain both in size and strength, and are 

 caught with hand-lines near the many sandbanks 

 in the Channel ; they are called when of the size 

 of whiting, codlings, and skinners, and when 

 larger, tumbling or tamling cod. They are 

 usually from twenty to forty pounds in weight, 

 more or less; there are two causes of wonder 

 regarding this fish, i. e., their periodical and 

 distant migrations from shore to shore, and the 

 incalculable myriads which compose their shoals. 

 Before the discovery of Newfoundland, the prin- 

 cipal fisheries for cod were on the coasts of Ice- 

 land and the Western Islands of Scotland. Four 

 hundred years ago, the English resorted to the 

 former country for these fish, and 150 vessels 

 were employed in that traffic ; but now far more 



