614 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
flesh of most of the species yields white, healthy, and agreeable food, 
easily separable into flakes when cooked, and easy of digestion. The 
family includes the several genera :—Morrhua, to which belongs 
the common cod-fish (AZ. vulgaris), the haddock (AZ eglefinus) ; 
Merlangus, the whiting (MZ. vulgaris and M. albus); the coal-fish 
(MZ. carbonarius) and the pollack (AZ. pollachius); Merluccius, the hake 
(M. vulgaris); Lota, the ling (L. molva) ; Motedla, the rock ling 
(MZ. vulgaris), and silver gade (JZ. argenteola); and other genera of 
less importance. 
The head of the cod (Morrhua vulgaris) is compressed ; the eyes 
placed on the side, close to each other, and veiled by a transparent 
membrane, a conformation which, according to Lacépéde, enables the 
animal to swim on the surface of the water in northern regions in 
the midst of mountains of ice and under banks covered with snow, 
without being dazzled by the brilliant light; but this opinion is, 
indeed, unsupported by any other naturalist of note. 
The jaws of the cod-fish are unequal, and among the rows 
of teeth with which it is armed many are mobile, and can be 
hidden in their cavities, or raised, according to ‘the will of the 
animal. The dorsal fins are three in number, as represented in 
Fig. 383; the anal fins are two; pectoral fins narrow, and termi- 
nating in a point; the caudal fin slightly forked. Its colour is of 
an ashy grey, spotted with yellow on the back; white and some- 
times reddish beneath. 
The cod-fish is provided with a vast stomach, and is very 
voracious, feeding on fishes, crabs, and molluscs. It is so gluttonous 
and indiscriminating, that it will even swallow pieces of wood and 
other similar objects. This is essentially a sea-fish: it is never seen 
in fresh-water streams or rivers, remaining during the greater part of 
the year in the depths of the sea. Its habitual sojourn is in the 
portion of the Northern Ocean lying between the fortieth and sixty- 
sixth degrees of latitude. 
In the vast range thus frequented by the cod, two large spaces 
are pointed out which it seems to prefer. The first extends to the 
coast of Greenland, and the other is limited by Iceland, Norway, the 
Danish coast, Germany, Holland, and the east and north coast of 
Great Britain and the Orkney Isles, comprehending the Doggerbank, 
Vellbank, and Cromer coast, together with salt-water lakes and arms 
of the sea, such as the Gairloch, Portsoy, and the Moray Firth, 
which indent the west coast of Scotland, and attract considerable 
shoals of cod-fish. 
The second range, less generally known, but more celebrated . 
