256 COMMON COD FISH. Class IV. 



June, when the Capelan* comes on the coast, 

 which lasts till August, when the herring is 

 employed again for the purpose. With these 

 are caught fish sufficient to find employ for 

 nearly fifteen thousand British seamen, and to 

 afford subsistence to a much more numerous 

 body of people at home, who are engaged in 

 the various manufactures which so vast a fishery 

 demands. 



The food of the cod is either small fish, worms, 

 crustaceous, or testaceous animals, such as crabs, 

 large whelks, &c. and their digestion is so power- 

 ful, as to dissolve the greatest part of the shells 

 they swallow. They are very voracious, and 

 catch at any small body they perceive moved by 

 the water, even stones and pebbles, which are 

 often found in their stomachs. 

 The Sounds. Fishermen are well acquainted with the use 

 of the air-bladder or sound of the cod, and are 

 very dexterous in perforating this part of a live 

 fish with a needle, in order to disengage the in- 

 closed air ; for without this operation it could 

 not be kept under water in the well-boats, and 

 brought fresh to market. The sounds of the 



* Le Lodde. Block ichth. xi. 80. tab. 381. Jig. 1. This 

 species of Salmon, the Capelan of America, must not be con- 

 founded with the fish of the same name, which is found in the 

 Mediterranean, and is the Power Cod fish of this work. Ed, 



