246 NATURAL mSTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



on the whole inside of the point the next day bat was sheeted over with these Lant. On the day 

 alter the wind came on and blew heavy from the westward, and it swept the beach off as clean as 

 yon could sweep a floor. They come in winter and in summer, and are quite common on the coast, 

 and on the Banks of Newfoundland there are immense numbers of them. I have frequently seen 

 them in the stomachs of codfish." 



The Lant is found in spring or early summer in the open sea, in the neighborhood of banks 

 and shoals remote from land, as is also the sprat in Europe and the "brit," "eyebait," or small 

 herring in America. Professor Sars has given a detailed description of the manner in which the 

 vast schools of young herring to the Norwegian shore in summer not only attract the large cod 

 and many other fish from the deep sea towards the shore, but also draw the yearling and two-year- 

 old coA from the shore to meet the incoming schools. 



Uses. — As has already been stated, this fish is not used for food in the Unit«d States. Its 

 importance is well understood by our fishermen who go after cod to Labrador and Newfoundland. 

 They are said to be common in the Edinburgh market in summer, while in Southern England they 

 are salted and dried for winter use. In Edinburgh, too, the other species, called the Homess, or 

 Horned Eel, is brought to the market in August and sold by the thousand. Parnell states that 

 this species spawns in September, and that their flesh is wholesome and palatable. 



Captain Atwood has also recorded some curious observations concerning the manner in which 

 these fish, with their sharp snouts, penetrate through the stomach of the codfish which has eaten 

 them, inl o the walls of the body, and there become encysted in the flesh, forming hard, black masses 

 which are very inconvenient to the fishermen, because they dull their knives which they use in 

 dressing the fish before drying them. 



