Amacanths.- 



-FISHES.- 



-Gadoids. 



113 



bladder is large, is often indented, and contains a 

 vaso-gangliun, but like the air-bladders of the rest of 

 the order, it has no pneumatic tube. The stomach is 

 capacious, with a sac-like projection below tlio pylorus, 

 and the pancreatic caeca are numerous. 



The genera are — Gadus; Gadiculus (Giiiclienot) ; Merlangtis; 

 3rei-luccLus; Lola; Motella; Brosmius; Brotula; Ateleopus 

 (Sclllegel); riiycis; Rnniceps; Bytliites (Re'mliarJt); IIo7na- 

 /r>/jo;«us (Girard) ; Xenocephalus; and Uraleptus. 



The Cod-fish {Morrhua callarias) anciently called 

 Keeling, is an inhabitant of both sides of the North 

 sea from Greenland, Iceland, and the North Cape, 

 down to tl\e 35th parallel of latitude. It inhabits 

 considerable deptlis, varying from fifteen to eighty 

 fathoms, beyond whii'li, fishing by the line becomes 

 so laborious as to he practically useless, but between 

 thirty and sixty fathoms on certain banks it is most 

 productive. The great haunts of the fish are the 

 Dogger Bank, certain banks lying off Ireland and 

 the Hebrides, Fiskar Bank off LotTodcn on the Norway 

 coast, the Great Bank of Newfoundland, the Green 

 Bank, and others on the Atlantic coasts of British 

 America. Very recently a most productive fisherj' 

 has been discovered round Rockhall, an islet lying off 

 the west coast of Scotland. 



When they deposit their spawn, the Cod are said 

 to emerge from the greater depths to banks rising 

 nearer to the surface, and the young fish remain in 

 the shallower water during the earlier stages of their 

 growth. The Cod fishery has doubtless been pro- 

 secuted in the North seas from the earliest times, 

 and must indeed have been coeval with the launching 

 of a sea-going boat. The Scandinavian Ohther in 

 his conversation with King Alfred about the year 

 890, incidentally mentions the residence of Finnic 

 fishermen on the coasts of Norway beyond the limits 

 of the then existing settlements of the Northmen, and 

 the Icelandic annals of the colonization of Greenland 

 and of the discovery of America in the tenth century 

 speak of the summer fisheries as yielding a supply of 

 food to the settlers. The Cod fishery of Western 

 Greenland is at the present day one of the chief stays 

 of the inhabitants. The importance of the Cod fishery 

 was recognized by England very early, but the Statute 

 of Herrings made in 13C0 in the reign of Edward III. 

 is the first act of Parliament in which there is a special 

 reference to this fish, contained in a clause giving 

 power to regulate the buying and selling of Stock-fish 

 of St. Botnlf. Another statute made in the same 

 year ordains that the price of Dogrjer-fish shall be 

 assessed at the beginning of the fair, and that no 

 Loych-fixh be chosen, only in three parts, that is to 

 say, Loh, Ling, and Cud. Instructions are also given 

 with respect to Orgci/s, " that is to say, fish greater 

 than Lob." Only masters of ships and fishermen by 

 profession were allowed to buy hooks and nets in 

 Norfolk ; and doggers and landships pertaining to 

 Blakency * were to discharge tlieir fish in that port 



* Blakeney is still a fishing village, but of mnch less note 

 than formerly, havinj? ceased to be the resort of German 

 merchants. John de Baconthorpe, whose metaphysical learn- 

 ing made him the wonder of liis age, was cdncated in the 

 Carmelite monastery of Blakeney, and died in London in 

 1346. 



Vol. XL 



only, or on the adjoining coasts of Suytor, Wyneton, 

 Clay, Salthouse, Shiringhara, and Crowmcr. In the 

 reigns of later kings, the statutes regulating the sea- 

 fisheries are numerous. 



Previous to the discovery of Newfoundland, the 

 British Cod fisheries wore established chiefly on the 

 Dogger Bank, off the Hebrides, and in the seas of 

 Iceland. The Danes complained to Henry VI. of the 

 irregularities committed by English fishermen at Ice- 

 land, and in the reign of Edward IV. tlie English were 

 excluded by treaty from the fishery there. In the 

 twenty-fifth year of Henry VIII. it was ordained tliat 

 only merchant adventurers to Iceland for Salt-fish, 

 Stock-fish, Ling, Haberdine, or Lob-fish, or doggermcn 

 or fishermen by profession, shall buy of these fish for 

 sale again at the fairs of Stnrbridge, St. Ives, or Ely ; 

 and in the third year of Edward VI. the admiral of 

 England was forbidden to tax merchants and fisher- 

 men adventuring and journeying to Iceland, New- 

 foimdland, or Ireland, for the getting of fish, under 

 pain of treble forfeiture. 



The Cod fishery is carried on solely by lines and 

 hooks ; one very long kind of line called lulter, which 

 is used chiefly on the Cornish coast, is fui'nishcd with 

 hooks attached at regular distances by snoods, and 

 baited with Sand-launces or JIolluscs. This line, 

 when properly armed, is laid across the run of the 

 tide during slack water, and is anchored and buoyed. 

 The other kind is the hand line, depending from the 

 side of tlie vessel, so that the baited hook is kept about 

 a yard from the bottom, and two of these lines are 

 managed by each man. Much of the fish caught on 

 the British coasts is brought alive into the Thames; 

 and Yarrell states that a few years ago two hundred 

 and fifty well-boats engaged in supplying the London 

 market with Cod and Flat-fish, were manned by two 

 thousand fishermen, whose earnings needed to be 

 £140,000 before the capitalists who furnished the 

 boats and fishing gear received any dividend. 



In the year 1854 the numbers of fish of the Cod and 

 Ling {Lota molva) kind taken in the Scottish fisheries 

 were tliree millions and a half, of which less than a 

 moiety were caught off the Shetland islands. The 

 weight of wholesome food thus extracted from the sea, 

 amounted to about five thousand five hundred tons ; 

 and so far from having any sensible effect on the 

 productiveness of the fishing banks, one pair of fish, 

 supposing all the eggs of the female to come to matu- 

 rity, would supply the annual waste thrice over, for 

 the number of eggs in a moderate sized Cod-fish has 

 been calculated at nine millions.* 



Cod are cured in the Orkneys and Hebrides in the 

 manner described as follows by James Wilson : — The 

 fish are generally gutted before they are brought ashore. 

 As soon as they are landed, the spUUer with a large 

 knife lays them open from head to tail, and extracts 

 the upper half of the back-bone. He then hands them 

 over to the washer, who, with a brush and sea-water, 

 cleanses them from every particle of blood. Wlien 

 all the fish are split, washed, and allowed to drain, they 



* Leuwenhoek reckoned nine million three hundred and 

 eighty-fonr thousand eggs in a cod-fish of middling size, — 

 (Feiin. Zool.) 



