136 THE COMMON COD. 



weight each. From the livers a great quantity of oil 

 is extracted. 



In Lapland and some of the districts of Norway, 

 the Cod and Torsk *, which are taken in the winter, 

 are carefully piled up, as they are caught, in buildings 

 constructed for the purpose, having their sides open, 

 and exposed to the air. Here they remain frozen 

 until the following spring, when the weather becom- 

 ing more mild., they are removed to another building 

 of a like construction, in which they are prepared 

 for drying. The heads are cut off, and the entrails 

 taken out, and the remainder of the body is hung up 

 in the air. Fish caught in the spring are immediately 

 conveyed to the second house, and dried in the 

 above manner. Those that are caught during the 

 summer season, on account of the heat of the wea- 

 ther, can only be preserved by the common methods 

 of curing with salt f. 



These fish feed principally on the smaller species 

 of the scaly tribes, on worms, shell-fish and crabs : 

 and their digestion is sufficiently powerful to dissolve 

 the greatest part even of the shells which they swal- 

 low. They are very voracious, and catch at any 

 small body they observe moved by the water, even 

 stones and pebbles, which are often found in their 

 stomachs. 



They are so extremely prolific that Leeuwenhoek 

 counted above nine millions of eggs in the roe of a 

 middling-sized Cod-fish. The production of so great 



* Another species, Cadus Callarias of Linnaeus. 

 + Acerbi ii. 340. 



