THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 



215 



Haddock. 



to the fair of Beaucaire, from whence it is transported in small 

 tin boxes to all parts of the world. 



The Cod-family, to which among others, the Dorse, the 

 Haddock, the Whiting, the Hake, the Ling, and other valuable 

 fishes belong, ranks next to that of the herrings in importance 

 to man. In the seas with which Europeans are best acquainted 

 the common Cod, the chief representative of the tribe, is found 

 universally, from Iceland to very nearly as far south as Gibraltar, 

 but appears most abundantly on the eastern side of the American 

 continent, and among its numerous 

 islands, from 40° up to 66° 1ST. lat., 

 where it may be said to hold do- 

 minion from the outer edge of the 

 great banks of Newfoundland, which 

 are more than three hundred miles 

 from land, to the verge of every creek and cove of the bounding 

 coast. To support such a mass of living beings, the ocean sends 

 forth its periodical masses of other 

 living beings. At one season the cod 

 is accompanied by countless myriads 

 •of the Capelin (Salmo arcticus), 

 and at ■ another by equal hosts of 

 a molluscous animal, the Cuttle-fish (Sepia loligo), called in 

 Newfoundland the squid. The three animals are migratory, 

 and man, who stations himself 

 on the shore for their combined 

 destruction, conducts his move- 

 ments according to their mi- 

 grations, capturing millions upon 

 millions of capelins and squids^ 

 to serve as a bait for the capture of millions of cods. In the 

 United Kingdom alone this fish, in the catching, the curing, 

 the partial consumption, and sale, supplies employment, food, 

 and profit to thousands of the human race ; but the banks of 

 Newfoundland are the chief scene of its destruction. As soon 

 as spring appears, England sends forth 2000 ships, with 30,000 

 men, across the Atlantic, towards those teeming shallows ; France 

 about one-half the number; and the Americans as many as both 

 together. On an average, each ship is reckoned to catch about 

 40,000 fishes; and we may form some idea of the voracity, as 



<J2 



Ling. 



Cod. 



