248 
MALACOPTERYGII. — GADID^. 
on ledges^ tier above tier, from the top of the 
house to within eight feet of the ground ; a fire is 
then kindled, and fed with green wood, chiefly oak 
or beech, and maintained, with occasional inter- 
missions, for about three weeks, or, if the fish 
are intended for exportation, a month ; the fire is 
then extinguished, and the house allowed to cool, 
and in a few days the herrings are barrelled. 
Bloaters” are prepared with much less salt, and 
therefore, though their flavour is milder and finer, 
they cannot be preserved good. Hence the supply 
of these is almost limited to the few weeks during 
which the fishery lasts. 
Family VL Gadid^, 
(Cods.) 
We have here another Family of fishes eminent 
in their usefulness to man. Perhaps, indeed, if 
we consider the great number of edible species, 
the immense quantities in which some at least are 
procured, the excellence of their flesh both fresh 
and salt, and the facility with which they can be 
preserved for future consumption, — we may safely 
pronounce these the most valuable of all the finny 
tribes. There are about a hundred and ten spe- 
cies recognised, and of these fully one-third are 
European. Twenty-one species are enumerated 
as British, and of these the following eighteen con- 
tribute more or less extensively to supply the need 
of man : — the Cod, the Dorse, the Haddock, the 
Pout, the Poor, the Whiting, Couch’s Whiting, the 
Coalfish, the Pollack, the Green Cod, the Hake, 
the Ling, the Burbot, three kinds of Rockling, 
the Torsk, and the Forked Beard : — a goodly list ! 
