86 
COAT.FTSH. 
eagerness; and as, especially in autumn, they often swim close 
to the surface in considerable numbers, when a fisherman has 
the good chance to fall in with a company, he will generally 
succeed in securing a large number, if not the whole; so that 
I have known four men with two boats (two men in each 
boat) secure twenty-four hundredweight with lines in a very 
few hours. The size of each fish ran at twenty-five pounds 
with great regularity. It seems uncertain what may be the 
object of their thus collecting together, but they are swift in 
their motions, and sport with the same energy that they devour. 
At other times, besides these gatherings together, the Coalfish 
associates but little with its felloAvs. 
Although this fish is not seen at fashionable tables, it will 
in its season bear some comparison with a portion of the same 
family that are. It is at least valued by those who are not 
fastidious in their choice; and, as it takes a preparation with 
salt favourably, large quantities are cured in the north for 
exportation. Mr. Edmonson, in his “View of the Zetland 
Islands,” informs us, that besides the quantities that are used 
fresh, about fifty tons are exported every year. In the west 
of England they are chiefly kept for the use of the fisherman’s 
family. 
They spawn in the spring, and we are informed that in 
the islands north of Scotland in the summer the young abound, 
and are angled for from the rocks, and serve a good purpose 
in the support of the poorer classes, d hey are much preyed 
on by other fish. 
The length of the Coalfish is about three feet, with the 
weight perhaps of thirty pounds, and a shape well fitted for 
active exertion. Head pointed, a little flattened above; under 
jaw longest, but the proportion less than in the Pollack; teeth 
in both, and a few in the palate. Body plump, compressed, 
more slender towards the tail; scales small; lateral line straight’ 
whitish, conspicuous. Vent opposite the division between the 
first and second dorsal fins. Pectoral fin pointed; dorsal and 
anal fins rather more angular than in the others of this genus; 
tail concave. Colour black on the back and dorsal fins, fighter 
below. The first dorsal fin has thirteen rays, second twenty-one 
rays, third nineteen: the first anal twenty-four, second fourteen; 
pectoral twenty; ventral five; caudal thirty-four. 
