256 MALACOPTERYGII. — GADIDJE. 
eagerness to get to the place where they are 
usually fed, just as barn-door fowls do at the 
sight of the person who feeds them. We came 
provided with a quantity of mussels, scalded, for 
the purpose of getting them more easily from the 
shell, a kind of food on which the Cod and other 
fish in the pond thrive amazingly ; and I was 
informed that after having been thus stall-fed , — 
if I may so term it, — for a few weeks, they greatly 
exceed in fiavour and juiciness their untamed 
brethren of the open sea. I held a mussel between 
my fingers, about two inches below the surface of 
the water, and immediately a Cod of about ten 
pounds weight took it, winning the prize by a 
head from three or four more of similar dimensions, 
all of which rushed towards my hand at the same 
time. It required all the nerve I could muster 
to prevent me from jerking back my hand at the 
moment the Cod, with widely extended jaws, took 
the bait. I made several attempts to get hold of 
one of them, but they all slipped from my grasp, 
except one small Cod of about four or five pounds 
weight, which I succeeded in making a prisoner. 
Having raised him out of the water and examined 
him at my leisure, I returned him to his native 
element, at which he seemed as much pleased as 
I should have been in regaining terra-jirma after 
an involuntary immersion. There was one large 
Cod of about ten pounds weight that I made 
several attempts to get hold of without success, 
as from his great size and strength he always 
escaped, and as he could not throw dust in my 
eyes, he revenged himself by darting off with a 
whisk of his tail that sent the water flying over 
me. After taking a short run, he always returned 
