CODS, 
251 
The fishery for Cod on the banks and shores of 
Newfoundland and Labrador is the most impor- 
tant in the worlds for the number of men and the 
amount of capital that it employs. It is estimated 
that twenty thousand British subjects are directly 
engaged in the fishery^ and probably thrice as 
many are more or less directly supported by it. 
The annual produce of their efforts may be 
roundly stated at 600,000 hundred weights of dried 
fish, and 3000 tuns of cod-liver oil; the whole 
worth, at the place of shipment, 450,000/. sterling. 
It has been supposed that more than six thousand 
vessels are engaged in the Cod fishery on both sides 
of the Atlantic ; and that thirty-six millions of 
these fishes are captured, salted and dried, to be 
then distributed over the various regions of the 
globe, We have eaten them,” says Mr. Swainson, 
under the name of Stock-fish^ in all parts of the 
Mediterranean, brought by our English vessels ; 
and they are to be had in all parts of the 
Brazilian Empire,- — being carried on the backs of 
mules from the sea-coast into those provinces of 
the interior, where fresh fish cannot easily be 
procured.” We believe, however, that the term 
Stockfish distinctively applies to the Cod dried 
whole, or gutted only, without salt, as the Nor- 
wegians treat their fish ; the British split it, take 
out the backbone, salt it, and dry it fiat. To 
Brazil and the West Indian Isles, Cod fish is sent 
in casks, pressed in by a screw ; to the Mediter- 
ranean and home market it is shipped in bulk. 
The Cod is a deep-water fish, rarely coming 
into the shallows; he is a voracious and almost 
promiscuous feeder. Unlike the Herring or 
Mackerel, it can scarcely be called gregarious; 
