244 the living animals OF THE WORLD 
lower their tackle they can feel the leads hitting the backs of the fishes. Both there and off 
the Faroe Islands and Iceland it is common practice to fish with a hook bearing a little piece 
of polished lead on its shank, no other bait being required, owing to the cod being so numerous 
that food is scarce. 
About the commencement of the fifteenth century the English began to go to Iceland 
for cod, and since the sixteenth century English cod-fishing vessels have visited Newfoundland 
and other far northern waters, which produce fish superior to English cod. It should be 
mentioned that the Cod Family is not found to any extent in tropical seas. 
While the Burbot is one of the few species of the group inhabiting fresh-water, and is 
peculiar in living there permanently, there are instances recorded of POLLACK having ascended 
from the salt water of the Norwegian fiords into fresh-water lakes, and it is an undoubted 
fact that many other species of sea-fish can accustom themselves to a residence in fresh-water. 
All through the year cod frequent the British coasts ; but it is two or three months before 
A British refresentati've of the group in ‘which the lower jaw is the longer and all the teeth of the upper jaw are of equal size 
the spawning-season, which commences in January or later according to the locality, that they 
gather in vast shoals and come close inshore. First come the small codling of a pound or 
so, and as the winter approaches the longshore fish are found gradually to increase in size, 
until by Christmas-time it is no uncommon thing on the east coast of England and Scotland 
for fish of from lo to 20 lbs. to be caught from the beach. 
As a rule the eggs of cod float, owing to a little globule of oil which each one contains, 
but in water which lacks salinity they sink. The quantities of eggs shed by each fish are 
enormous; nearly two millions were counted in a cod of a little under 12 lbs. It is fairly 
certain, however, that not more than two or three, if so many, mature fish are the product 
of the two million eggs; for if each fish even doubled itself in numbers (if we may use the 
expression) every year, the sea would soon contain more fish than water. Millions upon 
millions of eggs are destroyed when there is an on-shore wind during the spawning-season. 
Sometimes the shore on which they have been wafted has been seen to glisten with them. 
By the end of summer such of the young cod-fish as have escaped their many dangers 
attain about i inch in length. They are very varied in colour, which depends on that of the 
