GADOIDE.E. 243 



C. Ross informs us, that on the west coast of Greenland, in latitude 66^° N., a 

 number of very fine cod-fish were caught by the crew of the Victory, on a bank 

 consisting of small stones, coarse sand, and broken shells, with from eighteen to 

 thirty fathoms of water over it. He adds that there are several other banks of 

 considerable extent on that coast, some of them in the vicinity of the Danish colo- 

 nies, where the cod-fish assemble in astonishing numbers. This fish is also found 

 on the American side of the Greenland seas, for Davis observed many in possession 

 of the Esquimaux who inhabit the land between Cape Raleigh and Cumberland 

 Strait, and the following passage occurs in the narrative of his third voyage, when 

 embarking in the Moonshine of thirty-five tons, he ran to the southward from lati- 

 tude 67°, across the entrance of Hudson's Strait, to 57° on the Labrador coast. 

 " Coasting the shore towards the south, we saw an incredible number of birds : 

 having divers fishermen aboord our barke, they all concluded that there was a great 

 skull of fish : we being unprovided of fishing furniture, with a long spike nayle 

 made a hooke and fastened the same to one of our sounding lines : before the baite 

 was changed we took more than fortie great cods, the fish swimming so abundantly 

 thicke about our barke as is incredible to bee reported, of which, with a small por- 

 tion of salt that we had, we preserved some thirtie couple, or thereaboutes, and so 

 returned for England." (Hakluyt, iii., p. 120.) 



Small cod-fish, resembling the rock-cod of the British coast, were purchased by 

 Captain James C. Ross from a party of Esquimaux, who were fishing for them 

 through holes in the ice on the west side of the peninsula of Boothia, and he was 

 told that in the autumn full-sized ones were taken farther to the westward *. The 

 Common cod, or a variety of it, is mentioned by Tilesius as inhabiting the sea of 

 Ochotsk, but I have met with no account of its having been detected on the Ame- 

 rican side of the Pacific. The food of the cod-fish is very various, consisting of all 

 kinds of fish that inhabit the banks it resorts to, molluscse, both soft and shelly, 

 crustacese, and marine insects. The baits most generally used on the banks of 

 Newfoundland are capelin and cuttle-fish. At certain seasons the stomachs of the 

 cod brought to the London market are filled with young muscles. For an account 

 of the important fisheries which have been established for the capture of the cod, the 

 reader may consult Du Hamel, Pennant, or the several Encyclopedias which are 

 daily issuing from the press. The cod-fish evidently derives its English name 

 from its softness, flaccidity, and shape, the word cod (Saxon cot*>e) still being in 

 common use in Scotland to signify a bag or pillow. 



* This fish was termed by the Esquimaux owuk. 



2i 2 



