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GAB 
G v 
G, the seventh letter of our alphabet; as t 
? a numeral was antiently used to de- 
note 400; and with a dash over it thus, G, 
40,000. In music it is the character or mark 
-of the treble cliff; and from its being placed 
at the head, or marking the first sound in 
Guido’s scale, the whole scale took the name 
gamut. As an abbreviature, G. stands for 
Gaius, Geliius, gens, genius, &c. G. G. for 
gemina, gessit, gesserunt, &c. G . C. genio ci- 
vitatis, or Caesaris. G. L. for Gaius libertus, 
or genio loci. G. V. S. for genio urbis sa- 
crum. G. B. for genio bono. And G.T. 
-lor genio tutelari. 
GABARA, or gabbara, in antiquity, the 
dead bodies which the Egyptians embalmed, 
and kept in their houses, especially those of 
such of their friends as died with the reputation 
of great piety and holiness, or as martyrs. 
GABEL, a word met with in old records, 
signifying a tax, rent, custom, or service, paid 
to the king, or other lord. 
GABIONS, in fortification, baskets made 
of ozier-twigs, of a cylindrical form, six feet 
high, and four wide; which being filled with 
je rrth, serve as a shelter from the enemy’s fire. 
See Fortification. 
GABRES, or gaurs, in the religious cus- 
tom of Persia. See Gaurs. 
GAD, among miners, a small punch of 
iron, with a long wooden handle, used to 
break up the ore. One of the miners holds 
this in his hand, directing the point to a pro- 
per place, ^vhile the other drives it into the 
vein, by striking it with a sledge-hammer. 
Gad-fly, or breeze-flu. See Oestrus. 
GADOL1NITE, a mineral first found in a 
white felspar in the quarry of Ytterby in 
Sweden, and received the name gadolinite, 
because Gadolin was the chemist who first as- 
certained its composition. Colour perfect 
black, passing sometimes to brown. Found 
in mass. Fracture conchoidal. Scratches 
quartz. Brittle. Specific gravity 4.0497. 
Gelatinizes with hot diluted nitric acid. Be- 
fore the blow-pipe decrepitates, and assumes 
a whitish-red colour, but does not melt. 
With borax it melts into a topaz-yellow glass. 
Affects the magnetic needle. According to 
the analysis of Vauquelin, it is composer? of. 
35.0 yttria 
25.5 silica 
25.0 oxide of iron 
2.0 lime 
2.0 oxide of manganese 
10.5 water and carbonic acid 
100.0 
Klaproth, on the other hand, found 
59 75 yttria 
21.25 silica 
18.00 oxide pf iron 
0.50 alumina 
99.50 
This last analysis does not differ much 
from that which Ekeberg had before pub- 
lished. 
GADUS, cod, in ichthyology a genus of 
fishes belonging to the order of jugulares. 
The generic character is, head smooth; gill- 
membrane, seven-rayed; body oblong, co- 
vered with deciduous scales; fins all covered 
by the common skin ; dorsal and anal gene - 
rally more than one ; the rays unarmed ; 
.ventral fins slender, ending in a point. There 
are 17 species the principal of which are, 
1 . Gadus morhua, or common cod. Tins 
highly important and prolific species, which 
furnishes employment for so many thousands, 
and forms so considerable a part of the sub- 
sistence of mankind, is an inhabitant of the 
northern seas, where it resides in immense 
shoals, performing various migrations at stated 
seasons, and visiting in succession the diffe- 
rent coasts of Europe and America. Its his- 
tory is so well detailed by Mr. Pennant, that 
little can be added to what that author has 
collected in his British and Arctic Zoology. 
“ The general rendezvous of the cod-fish,” 
says Mr. Pennant, “ is on the banks of New- 
foundland, and the other sand-banks that lie 
off the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, 
and New England. They prefer those si- 
tuations on account of the quantity of worms 
produced in those sandy bottoms, which tempt 
them to resort thither for food; but another 
cause of this particular attachment to those 
spots is their vicinity to the polar seas, where 
they return to spawn: there they deposit 
their roe in full security, but want of food 
forces them, as soon as the first more southern 
seas are open, to repair thither for subsistence. 
Few are taken north of Iceland, but on the 
south and west coasts they abound: they are 
again found to swarm on the coasts of Nor- 
way, in the Baltic, off the Orkney and the 
Western isles ; after which their numbers de- 
crease, in proportion as they advance towards 
the south, when they seem quite to cease be- 
fore they reach the mouth of the Straits of 
Gibraltar.” 
Before the discovery' of Newfoundland, 
the greater fisheries of cod were on the seas 
of Iceland and our own Western isles, which 
were the grand resort of the ships of all the 
commercial nations ; but it seems that the 
greatest plenty was met with nearjceland. 
Newfoundland, a name in tile infancy 
of discovery common to all North Ame- 
rica, was discovered in the year 1496, by the 
celebrated Venetian* Sebastian Cabot and 
his three sons; who, at their own charges, 
under a grant of Henry the seventh, giving 
them possession, as vassals of his, of all lands 
they might discover, coasted from lat. 67° 30' 
to the Gape of Florida. 
1 he isle of Newfoundland is of a triangular 
form, and lies between lat. 46° 40' and 51° 
3G' : visited occasionally, but not inhabited, by 
savages from the continent. The boasted 
mine ofthis land, viz. its sand-bank, is repre- 
sented as a vast sub-marine mountain, of 
above 500 miles long, and iwar 300 broad, 
and seamen know when they approach it by 
the great swell of the sea, and the thick mists 
that impend over it. The water on the bank is 
from twenty-two to fifty fathoms; on the out- 
side from sixty to eighty; and on the smaller 
banks much the same: the increase of ship- 
ing that resort to these fertile banks is now 
unspeakable: our own country still enjoys 
the greatest share, and it ought lobe esteemed 
one of our chiefest treasures, bringing wealth 
to individuals, and strength to the state. All 
this immense fishery is carried on by the hook 
and line only: the principal baits are her- 
ring, the small fish called a capelin, the shell- j 
fish called clams, and pieces of sea-fowl; 
and with these are caugtit sufficient to find 
employ for fifteen thousand British seamen, 
and to afford subsistence to a much more ! 
numerous body of people at home, who are j 
engaged in the various manufactures which ] 
so vast a fishery demands. The fish, when 
taken, are properly cleaned, salted, and dried, 
and in this state sent into various parts of the 
European continent. 
The cod grows to a very large size. Mr. i 
Pennant commemorates a specimen taken on 
the British coast which weighed 78 lbs. and 
measured 5 feet 8 inches in length, and 5 feet 
in girth round the shoulders ; but the general 
size, at least in the British seas, is far less, and I 
the weight from about 1 4 to 40 pounds ; and 
such as are of middling size are most esteemed 
for the table. 
The cod is of a moderately long shape, 
with the abdomen very thick and prominent 
the head is of moderate size, and the eyes 
large : the jaws of equal length, the lower one 
bearded at the tip by a single cirrus ; in the 
jaws and palate are numerous sharp teeth : 
the dorsal and anal fins are rather large, the 
pectoral rather small : the ventral small and 
slender: the tail of moderate size and even j 
at the end, the first ray on each side being 
short, strong, and bony. The usual colour 
of this fish is cinereous on the back and sides, 
and commonly spotted with dull yellow: the 
belly white or silvery; but the colours occa--' 
sionally vary very considerably, and instances 
are often seen in which a yellow, orange, or 
even red tint prevails on the upper parts of 
the body, while the spots are lighter or deeper 
according to the different seasons in which 
the fish is taken : the lateral line, which is one 
of the principal distinctive marks of the spe- 
cies, is broad and whitish, and the scales are 
somewhat larger than in others of the genus. 
The food of the cod is either small fish, 
worms, testaceous or crustaceous animals, 
such as crabs, large whelks, &c. its digestion 
is so powerful as to dissolve the greatest part 
of the shells it swallows; it is very voracious, 
catching at any small body it perceives 
moved by the water, even stones and pebbles, 
which are often found in the stomach. The 
fishermen are well acquainted with the 
use of the air bladder or sound of this fish, 
and dexterously perforate the living fish with 
a needle, in orcler to let out the air contained 
