CHAPTER Vit 
THE COD FAMILY 
BY JOHN BICKERDYKE, M.A, 
HE large and important Cod Family belongs to the order of Spineless Fishes and the 
group in which both sides of the head are symmetrical. The Common Cod, the Whit- 
ing, the Haddock, the Pollack, the Coal-fish, the Hake, the Ling, and the little Rocklings, 
all belong to this important family, which has one representative in fresh-water, the Burbot, 
or Eel-pout, found in various rivers in Central and Northern Europe and North America. 
Perhaps the most remarkable member of the Cod Family is the CHIASMODUs, which has 
huge jaws lined with large pointed teeth, and a distensible stomach and abdomen. During 
the Challenger Expedition a specimen was taken 1,500 fathoms down in the North Atlantic. 
It had swallowed another fish, a kind of scopelus, more than twice its own size. The stomach 
of the chiasmodus had swelled to an enormous extent, and had become so thin from distension 
that the fish inside could be clearly seen through its walls. The scopelus, it is interesting to 
mention, is a fish brought up sometimes by the dredge from 2,500 fathoms. It occasionally 
comes to the surface at night, and has phosphorescent spots along its sides, giving out a dim 
light, which has its uses in the dark depths of the sea. 
To come back to the head of the family, the Cop is a fairly plentiful fish all around the 
British and Irish coasts, but appears to be decreasing in some waters as time goes on, owing 
to the over-trawling of the North Sea. Off the coasts of Norway, in the neighbourhood of the 
Lofoden Islands, the cod are sometimes so thickly packed in shoals that as the fishermen 
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons 
WHITING 
Easily distinguished from the cod by the absence of a barbel on the chin 
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