518 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
The second dorsal fin is separated from the first 
by an interval equal to the space occupied by two 
rays, and begins at a distance from the tip of the 
snout equal to about 39 V 2 — 38 % of the length of the 
body, or slightly less than the base of the fin, which 
measures about 41 — 44 1 /, % of the length of the body. 
It is made up of 37 — 39 rays, most of which are 
doubly bifid. The first 22 or 21 form a fin of nearly 
uniform height, slightly lower behind, the tip of each 
ray projecting in the shape of a small, fiat lobe beyond 
the fin-membrane. The following 17 or 18 rays do not 
extend beyond the membrane, which forms an evenly 
rounded and distinctly higher part of the fin. The first 
of these rays is almost simple, being only indistinctly 
branched at the tip, and the second and third only 
slightly surpass it in this respect. These three rays 
gradually increase in height, the next six are of almost 
equal length, and the following ones grow rapidly 
shorter. At the end of the first part of the fin the 
membrane becomes thin and fragile; in the posterior 
part it is much stronger. Everything shows that the 
fin may be regarded as consisting strictly of two fins, 
which are of different structure and begin, as in most 
of the Cods, with shorter, more nearly simple rays, 
but have not separated from each other. 
The anal fin is of exactly the same structure — 
sometimes of exactly the same extent- — as the second 
dorsal, generally containing 22 rays in the first part 
and 15 or 16 in the second. The first ray is rather 
short, the second and third rays gradually longer. 
In adult specimens the two middle rays of the 
caudal fin are so much shorter than the outer ones 
that, when the fin is expanded, the hind margin be- 
comes quite straight. Between the two corners we find 
18 — 20 thick, doubly bifid rays, and outside these rays, 
on either side, 6 — 8 others, which grow gradually 
shorter in front and are closely united, the outermost 
ones being indistinct. The number of the rays may 
thus rise to 36, perhaps more. In one specimen, how- 
ever, Sundkvall found only 29 (6 + 17 + 6). 
The colour is silver-gray, on the back blackish 
gray, During life the fish has a bright lustre, which 
is perhaps the origin of the Norwegian name of Lysing. 
The Greeks and Romans were of quite another opinion, 
for they gave the Hake the name of ass (Gr. oVog, 
Lat. Asellus ) from its gray colour, which is far eclipsed 
in brightness by the Mediterranean fishes in general. 
This name is still preserved in Nasello, the Sardinian title 
of this fish. In the rest of modern Italy it is known as 
Merluzzo. The iris is also silver-gray, but in the living 
fish has a dash of golden colour above. A small blackish 
spot appears at the base of the pectoral fin. The mouth 
and the walls of the branchial arches are blackish. 
The rather short and wide oesophagus passes into 
a large, saccate, thick-walled stomach. When this is 
empty, it shrinks Together, with the inner surface in 
creases and with one or two external transverse folds 
at the blind end. The intestine, which issues from the 
side of the anterior end of the stomach, is narrow and 
short and forms only two bends. Just at the begin- 
ning it is furnished with one single appendage, which 
is rather short and resembles a small round pouch of 
the same width as the intestine, furnished within with 
transverse folds. As we have mentioned above, the 
liver may be large, though its development, here as in 
most of the Codfishes, is subject to considerable varia- 
tion. In specimens preserved in spirits it is reddish 
yellow, in fresh ones, according to Duiiamel and Holl- 
berg, whitish gray. The gall-bladder is green. The 
two ovaries have a common opening into the cloaca, 
behind the orifice of the intestine. Hollberg estimates 
the number of the eggs in a large female at two million, 
Olsen at seven million. The air-bladder is large, rather 
firm, and hard. It is united by ligaments to the trans- 
verse processes of the abdominal vertebrae, to the ribs 
above the intestinal canal etc., and thus separates these 
parts from the kidneys, which lie uppermost, under the 
spinal column. The peritoneum is black throughout. 
The Hake is a true marine fish, which seldom 
enters the island-belts. Still, in the island-belt of Bo- 
huslan for example, young specimens are found, though 
in small numbers, all the year round. The Hake al- 
ways hugs the bottom, except when it chases its prey. 
During the greater part of the year it lives alone, or 
follows the Herring and Mackerel shoals in companies; 
but in the spawning-season it collects in fairly large 
shoals at the spawning-places. 
In the Cattegat the spawning-season occurs at the 
middle of July; but farther south the Hake spawns 
earlier in the year, at the end of winter or in spring, 
though even there the season may be later, as was the 
case, according to Couch 0 , on the English coast in 
Fishes of the British Islands , vol. Ill, p. 100. 
