BONY FISHES. ORDER II. THE COD. OS 
soon as the pressure is taken off, the curb slowly resumes its position on the 
railway, and is pushed to where a man stands ready to remove the cheese, 
as it falls from the curb, upon the opening of its hinged bottom. 
“This cheese, or scrap cake, is ground to different degrees of fineness to 
form the fish-guano ; this substance, being rich in ammonia-producing mate- 
rial, is used by some manufacturers of fertilizers to supply ammonia to 
phosphates that are deficient in that constituent.” 
BONY FISHES. ORDER III.—MALACOPTERYGII 
SUB-BRACHIATIS. 
The fishes of this order have the ventral fins under the throat, and the 
pelvis suspended to the shoulder-blade, which gives them an advantage over 
the Abdominal Fishes in ascending and descending. 
GADID&. 
First Family of Order III. : 
This family of fishes far transcends all others in its importance to man. In 
countless millions, they range the cold and temperate seas, and, being gen- 
erally gregarious, rove in vast shoals, which renders the capture of immense 
numbers of them a comparatively easy task. They have a body moder- 
ately long, somewhat.compressed, and covered with very small, soft scales. 
All the fins are soft. The head is well-proportioned and naked; the jaws 
and front of the yomer have unequal-pointed teeth, of rather small size, 
disposed in rows, like a card or rasp; the gill-openings are very large, and 
there are seven rays. Most of them have two or three fins on the back, 
some behind the vent, and a distinct caudal fin. The air-bladder is large 
and strong.  Linneus included them all in the great genus Gadus, but nat- 
uralists, since his day, have separated them into several genera, the most 
important of which is 
Morruva. — The Cod. The generic characterestics are, 
Body elongated, smooth, compressed towards the tail; back furnished 
with three dorsal fins ; ventrals pointed ; abdominal line with two fins behind 
the vent; the lower jaw with one barbule at the chin; seven gill-rays. 
M. Vulgaris. —The Common Cod. The back of this species is of a 
dusky hue, the sides lighter, and the belly is whitish. The whole of the 
upper part of the body is covered with brown and yellowish spots. I do 
not think the Cod admits of division into the numerous species which our 
naturalists have designated. The differences in appearance and quality are 
attributable to the nature of the ground where they feed, and other causes 
which might easily be specified. The Common Cod abounds in all European 
