Class IV. COAL COD FISH. 251 



the Colfisch, imagining it was so named by the 

 English, from its producing the Icthyocolla, but 

 Gesner gives the true etymology. 



These fishes are common on most of our 

 rocky and deep coasts, but particularly those 

 of the north of Great Britain. They swarm 

 about the Orknies, where the fry are the great 

 support of the poor. 



The fry is known by different names in differ- 

 ent places : they are called at Scarborough, 

 Parrs, and when a year old, Billets. About 

 nine or ten years ago such a glut of Parrs 

 visited that part, that for several weeks it was 

 impossible to dip a pail into the sea without 

 taking some. 



The young begin to appear on the Yorkshire 

 coast the beginning of July in vast shoals, and 

 are at that time about an inch and an half long; 

 in August they are from three to five inches in- 

 length, and are taken in great numbers with the 

 angling rod, and are then esteemed a very deli- 

 cate fish, but grow so coarse when they are a 

 year old that few people will eat them. Fishes 

 of that age are from eight to fifteen inches long, 

 and begin to have a little blackness near the 

 gills, and on the back, and the blackness in- 

 creases as they grow older. 



Though this fish is so little esteemed when 



