G A D U S, 
155 
vafl- quantities at Newfounclland, Cape Breton, Nova 
Scotia, and on the coafts of Norway and Iceland ; alfo off 
the Dogger-bank, and about the Orcades. But their 
principal refort for centuries paft, has been on the banks 
of Newfoundland, and other fand-banks off Cape Breton. 
That extenfive flat feems to be the broad top of a fuba- 
queous mountain, every \vl>ere furrounded with a deeper 
fea. Hither the cod annually repair, in numbers beyond 
the power of calculation, to feed upon the worms that 
fwarm upon the fandy bottom. Here they are taken in 
fuch quantities, that they fupply all Europe with a con- 
fiderable quantity of provilioii. The EnglKh have ffages 
erefted all along the ffn re, for {lilting and drying them ; 
and the filhermen, who take them with the hookaitd line, 
draw them as faff as they can throw out. This immenfe 
capture makes no fenflble diminution of their numbers; 
for, after their food is confumed in thefe parts, orwhen the 
feafon of propagation approaches, they take their depar¬ 
ture for the polar fees, where they depofit their roes in 
full fecurity, and repair the wafle which has been occa- 
fioned by death, or the depredations of their enemies. 
They annually make their appearance on the coaft of 
Iceland, Norw-ay, and Britain, gradually diminiflting in 
their numbers as they proceed to the fouth, and cealing 
altogether before they advance to the flraits of Gibraltar. 
Before the difeovery of Newfoundland, the greateft filh- 
eries of the cod were on the coaffs of Iceland, and the 
weffern ifles of Scotland, where the Englifh reforted in 
queff of them, as early as the beginning of the fifteenth 
century. Our right of fifliing in thefe parts, however, 
was not acknowledged by the government of Denmark 
till the reign of James 1 . whofe marriage with a princefs 
of thatcountry feciired to his fubjeiflsthat indulgence, of 
which they availed themfelves fo completely, that they 
had then a hundred and fifty (hips employed in the Ice¬ 
land fifhery. Even on the banks of Newfoundland, the 
French, Spaniards, and Portuguefe, had originally a far 
larger portion of the fifhing than the Britifh : in 1570, 
the former nations had upwards of three hundred velfels 
employed in that trade, when thofe of the Englifh did 
not exceed fifty. Matters, however, have fince been 
reverfed ; and the Englifh fhipping on that coaft has im- 
menfely increafed ; it is now fuperior to that of any other 
nation, and the trade is deemed a valuable acceffion to 
the wealth of individuals, as well as to the naval power 
of the empire: 20,000 Fritini feamen are at prefent em¬ 
ployed in this fifhery. This immenfe fifhery is conduced 
in a tradl of the fea agitated by a perpetual fwell, and 
involved in continual darknefs by means of a thick fog 
that conftantly hangs over it. In the cod fi(h, the fight 
is probably very imperfeft ; for almoft every fmall body 
that is agitated by the water attradts their rapacity, ftones 
and pebbles not excepted, for thefe are often found in 
their ftomachs. The general weight of the cod-fifli on 
the Britifh coafls is from fourteen to forty pounds ; fome 
have indeed been caught near eighty, but thofe of the 
middle fize are moft efteemed for the table. Their time 
of fpawning is from January to April, when they depofit 
their eggs in rough rocky ground. After having been 
exonerated of a load containing frequently three millions 
of young, the yiarent recovers it? plumpnefs fooner than 
almoft any other fifh ; and is caught in good condition du- 
ring almoft; the whole fummer. Schoneveldt remarks a 
kind appointment of Providence in the immenfe fecundity 
of this fifh 5 and in that abundant fupply which it affords 
to the'inhabitants of thofe bleak and frozen countries, 
that are unfit for the produdtion of grain. The ichthyo- 
phagi of thefe barren regions, fays he, not only furnifh 
themfelves with a fubftitute for bread, by drying this 
fifh, but fend a vaft quantity of their furplus ftores to add 
to the fupply of other nations. The numbers and fer¬ 
tility of thefe fifh, feem indeed amply to juftify the grate¬ 
ful exultations of this writer; for they are fuch as will 
for ever baffle all the efforts of man, and the voracity of 
the inhabitants of the ocean, to exterminate their race, 
at lead while they are caught only with hook and line. 
Leeiienhoek reckons the number of eggs in a middle fize 
cod to be 9,344,000; Brindley reckons them at four md*. 
lions only; but even that is fufficient to fupply ail that 
can be deflroyed by fi.fiiery, if we confiderwhat quantities 
I'pawn every year. 
The cod generally haunts deep places in the open fea, 
coming on the banks and fhores in fpawning-time ; they 
eat crabs, whelks, herrings, and other fifh, and are fd 
greedy lliat they do not fpire,even their own young; like 
birds of prey, they have the faculty of cafting up what 
tliey cannot dtgeft ; but, according to Anderfon, their di- 
geftive powers are fo flrong, that the lidiermen of Heli¬ 
goland have found the haddocks which were thrown out 
for baits completely digefted in their ftomachs in frx 
hours. The fpawning-time differs with thefe, as in other 
fifti, according to age, the various degrees of cold in the 
bottom of the water, the nature of the air, and the tein- 
pecatitre of the feufons. July 17, 1801, Mr. Norris, 
cooper, of Portfmouth, hawling his feine-net near Soiith- 
fea-caftle, caught a very fine cod, which weighed fifty- 
five pounds and three qn'arters. This fifhery lafts almofts 
all the year in Norway, England, and America; but the 
period in wliich tlie greateft quantities are taken on the 
coafls of Norway and Iceland is from February till the 
end of March or the middle of April ; in America, the 
moft confiderable fiiliery is in May and June; in July 
thefe filh difappear, but come again in Septenlber; but, 
as tlie waters of that country are then covered with ice, 
the fifhery is not to be depended upon by Europeans at 
that feafon. In the north, the cod-fifhery draws toge¬ 
ther four or five thoufand men, Normans, Danes, Swedes, 
Hamburghers, Dutch, and French ; but the Dutch are 
thofe who derive the greateft advantage from it, as they 
prepare and barrel up the fifh with moft care and fkill; 
blit, as iliey are forbidden, as well as other nations, to 
dry their fifli in the country, they fait the greater part, 
hanging fome few on poles, on-board their velfels, to dry. 
The mode of preparing the cod-fifti for prefervation 
confifts partly in drying it in the air, partly in fahing it, 
or in both. The firft makes what is called in the north 
JlockJij'ch, or dried cod ; the fecond, laberdan, falted or 
green cod; a third preparation is called klipfjj/ch, (rock* 
fifh,) white cod. The Icelanders, wlio get almoft their 
whole food from this fifit, take the greateft pains to pre¬ 
vent want by preferving it vvlien it is plenty ; they dry it, 
giving it then the general name of Jlockff/}-, but there are 
two preparations, one called Jlackfijch, fplit-cod, and the 
other kangefifck. They are prepared in the following 
manner; when the men have landed their cargo, the 
women cut off the heads of the fifh, open the belly, draw 
out the entrails, then fplit tlie back withinfide, and take 
out the back-bone except the three laft vertebrte ; then 
they boil the heads and eat them frefli, and the men take 
the gills for bait. They dry the bones, which ferve to 
make fires, or as food for their cattle ; and they make oil 
from the livers. The fifli thus cutup, they I'pread them 
on the rocks till the wind has thoroughly dried them, 
which is generally in three weeks or a month ; but, if a 
ftiarp wind blows from the north, this is generally ac-- 
complifhed in three or four days. Where there are 
no rocks, and the-foil is fandy, they make a bed of 
ftones laid clofe together, turning the fill) downwards 
upon them, that the inCde may be kept from the rain, 
which would fpoil it; there they fuffer them to lie in 
heaps till they find occ;,fion to fell them.—The hange- 
fijeh is prepared nearly in the f.ime'manner; but with this 
difference, that tlie back is cut from without, and fplit 
entirely through, and tliat a hole is made to pafs the poles 
through on which they are hung on ffages of (lone; as 
thefe ftones are only laid one upon another without any 
cement, the air has a free paftage; and the whole is co¬ 
vered witli boards or grafs to keep our the wet. 
The curing of this fifli is different among the Norwe¬ 
gians from what it is with the Icelanders, as they ufe fait. 
When 
