174 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
The body is only slightly compressed, deepest and 
broadest at the beginning of the first dorsal fin, from 
which point it tapers sharply towards the caudal fin. 
The back is almost straight and terete, the belly also 
terete, but more or less pendent, especially in the 
female. The greatest depth of the body is generally 
even relatively greater in old specimens than in young, 
and varies between about 16 and 21 % of the length. 
In the quite common, macrocephalic, deformed speci- 
mens — with the length of the head sometimes as much 
o 
as 38 % of that of the body — the depth is also ex- 
cessively great, in some cases about x / 3 of the length 
of the body. The greatest breadth is about 2 / 3 (60 — 
75 %) of the depth". 
The head is comparatively large and wedge-shaped. 
Its relative length generally increases with age from 
about V 4 to nearly 1 / 3 of the length of the body 6 ; and 
it is only during the first part of its growth, till it 
attains a length of about 100 mm., that the Cod follows 
the general rule that the relative length of the head 
decreases. The forehead is flat. A deep groove in 
the occiput, deepest in fat and robust specimens, ex- 
tends almost to the beginning of the first dorsal fin. 
The eyes are round, with oval orbits, and large, but 
their relative size diminishes considerably during growth, 
sinking from 8 to 4 % of the length of the body or 
from about 33 to 13 % of the length of the head, while 
the fish grows from 5 to 73 cm. Their position is 
such that the straight line from the tip of the snout 
to the upper point of the gill-cover touches the inferior 
margin of the pupil, and the length of the snout is 
generally about ' 4 of the postorbital length of the head, 
but in young specimens may measure 80 or 90 % there- 
of, and in old, on the other hand, sometimes only 2 / 3 . 
The breadth of the interorbital space, which also under- 
goes relative diminution, though not so considerable, 
measures about V 4 (usually 22 — 25 %) of the length of 
the head. The nostrils, with their slightly raised, lobate 
margins, lie nearer to the eyes than to the tip of the 
snout. The mouth is large, but not much cleft, the 
corner of the mouth lying at least at some distance in 
front of the eye; and the upper jaw projects more or 
less beyond the lower. As in most of the Codfishes, 
the transverse dermal folds in the mouth behind the 
jaws are wanting. The length of the lower jaw follows 
the head in its changes of growth, varying between about 
12V 2 and 1 5 1 / 2 % c of the length of the body. The hind 
extremities of the maxillary bones are broad and trun- 
cate, their breadth at this point being about 18 — 20 % 
of the length of the lower jaw. The distance between 
the tip of the snout and this point also increases with 
the head, varying between 11 and 14 % d of the length 
of the body or 80 and 92 % of the length of the lower 
jaw. The snout is formed by a thick pad, projecting 
beyond the upper jaw, and in old specimens is gener- 
ally blunt, in younger ones more pointed. We find an 
exception to this in very young fish, under 50 mm. in 
length, in whose case the upper jaw projects only slightly, 
if at all, in front of the lower. Under the point of the 
chin there hangs a barbel, generally wavy, and varying 
in length between about 50 and 80 % of the longitu- 
dinal diameter of the eye. On the intermaxillary bones, 
as well as in the lower jaw, we find pointed, subulate 
teeth of various sizes, in the lower jaw set in two or 
three rows, and on the intermaxillary bones in patches, 
which in front are broad and separated from each other. 
The teeth are largest in the outermost row in the 
upper jaw, and the innermost row in the lower, being 
here recurved and increasing in size towards the ear- 
ners of the mouth, though the hindmost ones are some- 
what smaller. In young specimens, however, only the 
row of coarser teeth in the lower jaw is visible, the 
smaller teeth that lie in front of this row appearing 
later. Similar, cardiform teeth are set on the anterior, 
angular part of the vomer. The pharyngeals are also 
armed in the same way. Of the three upper pha- 
ryngeals on each side the middle ones are the largest 
and triangular in shape, the other two more elongated. 
The two lower pharyngeals are rather like branchial 
arches and elongated, the lancet-shaped patch of teeth 
being about four times as long as it is broad. The 
branchial arches are furnished as usual with two rows 
so far as one could decide — seemed to have belonged to a Common Cod about 12 clcm. long - . That the Cod lias attained such a size off 
Gothland, is very improbable; and as it is the greater number of just those bones which are left behind in the curing of stockfish, and no others, 
that still remain in the Doomsday Fish, the suspicion readily suggests itself that the fish has been a large stockfish, brought by some Goth- 
land seaman from Norway, and deposited in the church, where in olden times everything remarkable and rare was preserved. 
“ We must here remark that our measurements of this species only comprise specimens up to a length of about 7 ' dm. 
Ij In the so-called Gadus ruacrocephalus the length of the head is said even to exceed - - of that of the body. 
c In G. macro cephalus sometimes at least as much as 18 %. 
d In G. macrocephalus sometimes at least as much as 1 6 1 %. 
