248 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



on his second voyage, from the rocky pools of the Duke of York's Bay, in South- 

 ampton Island, where they had been left by the falling tide ; it was again found 

 equally plentiful, on his third expedition, in Prince Regent's Inlet ; and on Sir 

 John Ross's recent voyage great numbers were collected from crevices in the ice 

 that covered Batty Bay, in July, 1833, and several were obtained, even in the 

 winter time, in Felix Harbour. The merlangus polaris is also an inhabitant of the 

 Spitzbergen Sea, having been found on Sir Edward Parry's polar voyage, as far 

 north as latitude 82f° N., in plenty, in small bays where streams of fresh water run 

 into the sea. It is highly probable that this is the same fish with the gadus virens 

 of Fabricius, or the ordleet, as he supposes, of the Greenlanders, which is said to 

 swim near the surface, and to be an agreeable article of food. The Polar coal-fish 

 forms the principal nourishment of the numerous sea-fowl which migrate to the 

 Arctic regions in summer, its habit of frequenting the top of the water rendering 

 it an easy prey. The beluga drives it upon the ice in shoals. In the summer it is 

 much infested by a lernaa, which attaches itself to the gills. 



Captain Sabine describes it as being between five and six inches in length, and as being 

 very nearly allied to the gadus virens, from which it may be distinguished by the third dorsal 

 being larger than the two anterior ones, whereas, in virens, the middle one is the largest: the 

 lower jaw rather exceeds the upper one ; the tail is slightly forked. Captain James Ross 

 says that there is a considerable variation in the number of rays in the fins, the average of a 

 great, many differing slightly from Captain Sabine's enumeration. Its length, he says, seldom 

 exceeds ten inches. 



Fins— P. 18; V.6; D. 14—16—19; A. 17—22; C. 42. Sabine. 



18; 6; 13—15—20; 17—21; 42 to 48. Ross. 



[99.] 1. Gadus (Lota) maculosus. (Cuvier.) The Methy. 



Family, Gadoidese. Cuv. Genus, Gadus. Linn. Sub-genus, Lota. Cuv. 



Gadus lota. Penn., Arct. Zoo/., lntr., p. cxci. Rich., Ft. Journ., p. 724. 



Gadus maculosus. Le Sueur, Journ. Ac. Sc. Phil., i., p. 83. An. 1817. 



Lota maculosa. Cuv., Reg. An. ,ii., p. 334. 1829. 



Molva maculosa. Cuv., in lit. An. 1828. 



Methy. Crees. La loche. Voyageurs. Dog-fish. Eel-pout. United States. 



The lota, or lings, have two dorsals, one anal, and more or less numerous bar- 

 bels. Some species are inhabitants of fresh water. The Common ling, or gadus 

 molva of Linnaeus, is supposed by Fabricius to be a Greenland fish, named by the 

 natives eevirksoak, but he had not an opportunity of examining a specimen. The 



