204 



THE COD 



" The in-shore cod, as on the Great Banks, are caught 

 with a line in two to six and eight fathoms of water, where 

 the tide ebbs and flows with considerable force over rocky 

 soundings. Pleasure boats are often successful in hauling 

 one or two hundred in a day, weighing from one to fifteen 

 pounds. Those large specimens seen occasionally in the 

 stalls, are procured further out at sea. 



"In the spring, the cod seems uncommonly voracious; 

 fDr however unsuccessful it may have been in snatching the 

 bait from the hook, and notwithstanding the mouth may have 

 been lacerated, it seizes with avidity the very next it discov- 

 ers. Wounds heal in a few days, so that however badly the 

 skin is torn, the gelative of the blood is poured in so copiously 

 as to close the breach much sooner than the healing process 

 is completed in warm-blooded animals. 



" Two or three years since, the keeper of Rainsford Island 

 caught a cod which had suspended to about a yard of line, 

 a lead weight of several pounds, the other end being secured 

 to a hook which was deeply imbedded in the bones and in- 

 teguments of the upper jaw. How long the fish had been 

 dragging about the inconvenient burden, it was difficult to 

 decide." 



One of the most important features in this fish, is its 

 astonishing fecundity. Leuwenhock has had the patience to 

 count nine millions of eggs in a single cod ; and although 

 hundreds of millions of these eggs are hourly destroyed by 

 the fishermen, who take them at all seasons, and their more 

 voracious brethren of the ocean, who feed upon them still, 

 says a French writer, on the subject of their prolific powers, 

 we have assurance of an inexhaustible supply of wholesome 

 food, secured to all succeeding generations. 



The best bait for a pleasure party cod-fishing, is the 

 common mud clam ; by some, however, the menhaden * is 



* This fish also goes under the name of marsbanker, or mosbonker: 



