502 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
7 1 / 2 or 7 % of that of the body, and pointed, with the 
second ray longest but only slightly longer than the 
first and third. Their insertion, which moves forward 
during growth, to a point about 16 or 19 % of the 
length of the body distant from the beginning of the 
first anal fin, thus lies eventually in front of the per- 
pendicular from the tip of the gill-cover. The first 
two rays are simple. 
The internal organs, of which Schagerstrom" has 
given a minute description, are almost like those of its 
congeners. The only differences are that, as in the next 
species, the right lobe of the liver is only slightly 
shorter than the left, and the pyloric appendages are 
also extremely numerous. 
The coloration, which alters to some extent with 
age, is darker in old Coalfish than in young. As a 
rule the back and the upper part of the head are dark 
olive-green. This colour grows lighter downwards, the 
sides a. little below the lateral line 4 , which is white and 
in front almost moniliform, being yellowish gray. Still 
lower down the sides turn white, the belly and the 
under surface of the head being silver-gray or, at the 
very bottom, milky white. All the fins are of a plain, 
dark olive-gray, except the anal fins, which are white 
at the base, and the ventral, which are reddish white. 
The forehead, the snout, and the lips are black, the 
inside of the mouth in old specimens black, in young- 
gray, and the tongue always white with black edges * 6 . 
The iris is silvery, with a dark or reddish tinge. 
The Coalfish is a North Atlantic species, whose 
true geographical range essentially coincides with that 
of the Cod, but must probably be regarded as of a 
rather more southern character. It is true that, accord- 
ing to Day, this fish was the only one found by Lord 
Mulgrave on the shores of Spitzbergen, that Captain 
Simonsen is said in 1872 to have observed enormous 
numbers of Coalfish there in Green Harbour' 2 , and that 
Captain Lindstrom stated to Malmgren that- he had 
taken both Haddocks and Coalfish off the south point 
of Spitzbergen. But none of the numerous Swedish 
Expeditions to Spitzbergen or the Norwegian Arcfic 
Expedition found a single Coalfish there. The species 
is probably very rare on the coast of Greenland as 
well, for Fabricius never observed it in person. More 
recently, however, it has been forwarded thence, ac- 
cording to Reinhardt 6 , to Copenhagen Museum; and 
during Parry’s first voyage the fry of the Coalfish 
were found, it is stated, on the west coast of Davis’ 
Strait. On the other hand, the Coalfish is common 
from the •Murinan coast and Finmark, Iceland and 
Newfoundland, on the American coast south to Massa- 
chusetts, and on the European coast to France. There, 
however, according to Moreau, it grows rare south of 
the Loire (47° N. lat.) and is only occasionally met 
with in the Bay of Biscay, while on the other side of 
the Atlantic, according to Dekay, the extreme southern 
limit of its geographical range is off New York (40° 
N. lat,.). CanestrinP includes the Coalfish among the 
Mediterranean forms on the south coast of Italy; but 
GigliolC states that he had never seen an Italian spe- 
cimen, and neither Duiiamel nor Moreau give it among 
the Mediterranean fishes of France, nor did Steindach- 
ner find it on the coasts of the Spanish Peninsula. In 
Scandinavian waters the Coalfish is largest and most 
common on the Norwegian coast all the way to Fin- 
mark. In the north of the Cattegat the older speci- 
mens become rarer, though young Coalfish are found, 
in certain years at least, in fairly large numbers. Off 
Kullen the species is common all the year round, but 
only sometimes enters the Sound, according to both 
Nilsson and Schagerstrom. Schonevelde describes it 
from the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein, and Walbaum 
furnished Bloch 7 ' with specimens from Ltibeck; but in 
recent times it has not been found there*. Farther up 
the Baltic it has never been met with. 
The Coalfish is less voracious than the Cod, if we 
may judge by the fact that, its food seems to consist 
chiefly of small fishes and crustaceans. The Capelin 
a Vet.-Akad. Hand]. 1831, p. 149. 
6 v. Wright’s figure apparently shows that in the living fish the lateral line may be of the same colour as the body, in young spe- 
cimens at least. 
c According to Collett (N. Mag. f. Naturv., 1. c.) Sparre-Schneider received on behalf of Tromso Museum a Coalfish that was quite 
red, like a Sebastes. 
d Peterm. Geogr. Mitth. 1872, p. 463; Heuglin Ileisen n. d. Nordpolarmeer 1870 — 71, vol. 3, p. 221. 
e D. Vid. Selsk. Naturv. og Math. Afh., 7:de Deel, pp. 115 and 128. 
f Fauna d' Italia, Pesci, p. 155. 
,J Espos. intern, di Pesca in Berlino 1880, Sez. Ital. Cat., p. 96. 
h Fische Deutschlands , II, p. 166. 
’ See M6 bius and PIeincke, 1. c. 
