66 
DORSE. 
VARIABLE OOD. BALTIC COD. 
Ascllus varius, 
‘t tt 
Gadits callarias, 
Gade callarias, 
Murrhua callarias, 
Willoughby: p. 172, table L. 1. 
Bloch; pi. t)3. 
Linnasus. 
Lacepede. 
CuviEK. Yaukell; Br. F., vol. ii, p. 231. 
The Dorse is especially a fish of the north, for it exists in 
large numbers in the sea about Greenland, and even in the 
Frozen Ocean on the north of America. It is familiarly known 
also on the coast of Norway and Sweden, and further in the 
Baltic, where it is said to ascend rivers as far as the tide 
reaches; but its appearance further south is uncommon, and it 
is only as a rare straggler that it has shewn itself in the west 
of England or south of Ireland. Yet 1 have known a few 
instances in which it has been taken on the north and south 
borders of Cornwall; and I feel little donbt that what has 
been supposed a rare variety of the Haddock, preserved in the 
museum of the Dublin University, and referred to in the 
catalogue of that collection, as also mentioned in Mr. Thompson’s 
“Natural History of Ireland,” is in fact an example of the 
Dorse. Ihe mistake here supposed, of confounding this fish 
with the Haddock has occurred in at least one other instance, 
and is the rather to be excused as in its general form it bears 
a nearer likeness to the last-named fish than to a well-fed 
Oldinary Cod, although indeed in colour it differs greatly from 
both. ^ 
The peculiar habits of the Dorse as distinguished from the 
others of its family have not been communicated to us; but 
we know it takes a bait, and as food it is said to be of 
superior quality, this preference being assigned to it even after 
it has been salted. 
