204 
THE COD. 
“ The in-shore cod, as on the Great Banks, are caught 
with a line in two to six and eight fathoms of water, where 
the tide ebbs and flows with considerable force over rocky 
soundings. Pleasure boats are often successful in hauling 
one or two hundred iu a day, weighing from one to fifteen 
pounds. Those large specimens seen occasionally in tho 
stalls, are procured further out at sea. 
“ In the spring, tho cod sterns uncommonly voracious ; 
for however unsuccessful it may have been in snatching the 
bait from the hook, and notwithstanding the mouth may have 
been lacerated, it seizes with avidity the very next it discov- 
ers. Wounds heal in a few days, so that however badly the 
skin is torn, the gelative of the blood is poured iu so copiously 
as to close the breach much sooner than the healing process 
is completed in warm-blooded animals. 
“ Two or three years since, the keeper of Rainsford Island 
caught a cod which had suspended to about a yard of line, 
a lead weight of several pounds, tho other end being secured 
to a hook which was deeply imbedded in the bones and in- 
teguments of the upper jaw. How long tho fish had been 
dragging about the inconvenient burden, it was difficult to 
decide.” 
One of the most important features in this fish, is its 
astonishing fecundity. Leuwenhock has had the patience to 
count nine millions of eggs in a single cod ; and although 
hundreds of millions of these eggs are hourly destroyed by 
the fishermen, who take them at all seasons, and their more 
voracious brethren of the ocean, who feed upon them — still, 
says a French writer, on tho subject of their prolific powers, 
wo have assurance of an inexhaustible supply of wholesome 
food, secured to all succeeding generations. 
The best bait for a pleasure party cod-fishing, is the 
common mud clam ; by some, however, the menhaden * is 
* This fish also goes under tho name of marsbankor, or mosbonker: 
