G A D u s. ua 
tt lialf lotio; i in Aiip:«fl they are from three to five"inches, 
and arc taken in vaftquantitieswith the angling rod ; they 
are then reckoned a very delicate dilh, but afterwards 
grow fo coarCe, that, by the time they are a year old, tew 
people eat them. They are fold cither frefh, or when 
failed, in the counties of York and Northumberland, at 
an inferior price to the other fpecies of cod. The fpeeies 
in fome counties grows to the length of two feet and a 
half, and the breadth of four or five inches, weighing 
thirty pounds and upwards. The ova are of the lize of 
millet j and, by prefPing the belly never fo little, they 
ooze cut at the navel. The Icelanders, who have 
whiting in plenty, defpife this fpecies; in Norway the 
poor people eat them and make oil of the liver. They 
are caught all the year round ; but particularly in fum. 
mer, when in purfuit of the fprat, which is therefore the 
bed bait to catch tliem with; another bait is a bit of eel- 
(kin. This fpecies is failed and dried in the fame man¬ 
ner as the common cod j and in that flare can hardly be 
diftinguifiied from it. The interior conformation is the 
fame as the whiting. 
12. Gadus pollachius, the pollack: fpecific cliarac- 
ter, the lower jaw longer than the upper, the lateral line 
bent. Tliere are fevenraysin the membrane of the gills, 
nineteen in the pcdtoral fins, fix in the ventrals, eighteen 
in the firfl anal, nineteen in the fecond, forty-two in the 
tail, thirteen in the firfl dorfal, eighteen in the fecond, 
nineteen in the third. See Plate I. fig. 2. The fail (not 
the fin) ends in a fliarp point, and is brown, as well as the 
back; the under jaw is the longer; and both jaws are 
armed with teeth, as in the preceding fpecies ; the tongue 
is fhort, pointed, and rough towards the back part. 'I'he 
{ uipil of the eye is black, the iris yellow with numberlefs 
(lack dots. The fcales are thin, oblong, and edged with 
yellow. The dark colour of the back is lofl by degrees 
in the wlfite of the fides, which are fiudded with brown 
dots, as well as the belly, the ground colour of which is 
filvery. 1 he pedtoral fins are yellowifli and fmall ; the 
ventrals orange-colour ; the anals olive with bhick dots. 
This is all’o found in the Baltic and the Northern Ocean ; 
lying in deep holes in the rocks, and places where the fea 
is mofl agitated ; a few. are caught in the Baltic near Lu- 
bec, and in the North Sea ; but in Norway and England 
they are very common, and arrive in fummer in great 
fhoals. They often rife to the (urface of the water, and 
even jump above it in divers pofitions, catching any thing 
that floats on the furface ; at this time they are caught 
with a line and hook baited with a goofe’s feather. They 
grow a foot and a lialf long, weighing two or three 
pounds ; but they have been caught three feet in length, 
and.eight or ten inches wide. As food, they are white, 
firm, and better tafled than the coal-filh, though inferior 
to the torfk and the whiting. They feed on young fry, 
particularly the fand-launce, which has been found in the 
llomach. The liver is of a pale red colour, in three 
lobes. 
III. Two dorfal Jins. 13. Gadus merlticius, the hake : 
fpecific cliarafter, the lower jaw the longefl, and no bar- 
hies at the motith. The membrane of tlte gills is fup. 
ported by/even rays, the pedloral fins, by twelve, the ven. 
trals by (even, the anal by thirty-feven, the tail by twenty, 
the firfl dorfal by ten, the fecond by thirty-nine. This 
fpecies grows from one and a half to two feet in length, 
and is of a more flendcr fltape titan the common cod. Its 
form fomewhat refenibles that of the pike; whence it is 
called theby the French and Italians. The mouth 
is large, and furninied with a mixture of fhort andiong 
teeth; and the palate, as is common to tiie fifhes of thi's 
genus, is belet with fharp fpines or teeth. The lateral 
line runs near the back, from five to ten pimples or warts 
appear on the part of it neareft the head. It is white 
above, light grey underneath ; thefe colours being fimi- 
lar to tliofe of the afs, it has been called ovo; by Ariflotle 
and many other writers; and the word afellus, or young 
afs, has been afl'umed as a generic term for many of the 
fpecies. The hake is found in abundance on many of onr 
coafts, particularly thofe of Ireland, where there was 
formerly a flated fifliery on the Nymph Bank off Water¬ 
ford ; immeni'e quantities were caught there at the two 
feafons of their periodical appearance, June and Septem¬ 
ber, when fix men with liooks and lines frequently killed 
a thoufand fifli in one night; the produce of this fifliery 
was f.dted up and exported to Bilboa in Spain ; it has, 
however, been for many years upon the decline, owing to 
the fifh deferting their wonted ftation. This dcieliNion 
of their accuflomcd haunts, is not pcctiliar to the fiflics of 
this fpecies; the haddock has in the fame manner aban¬ 
doned the coafls of Waterford, and the herrings and th.e 
balking fliarks have difplayed the fame caprice, in relin. 
quilliing their flations on feveral parts of the Britifli fliores. 
Naturaiiffs have not yet given any plaiifible account of 
this irregularity in the migration of fillies. In fome in- 
ftances it may be occafioned by the clofe purfuit of an un- 
ufiial number of predatory fifh, to avoid whofe voracity 
they may be driven upon fliores that they were formerly 
tinaccuflomed to frequent ; a deficiency of the fmaller 
filli, that fupplied them, may, in other inffauces, have 
forced them to abandon a refideuce where they could no 
longer be fiipported : but the pernicious cuffom of trawl, 
ing is perhaps the mofl common canfe of their abandon¬ 
ing the uftial nations, beciUife, by that means, not only a 
great part of their fpawn is deinoliflied, which was lodged 
in the fand, but the worms and iiifeils which conffituicd 
their food, are either deftroyed by it, or driven into deep¬ 
er water. 
14. Gadus molva, the ling : fpecific charadler, the 
upper jaw protruded, barbies from the lower. There are 
feven rays in the membrane of the gills, nineteen in the 
pedloral fin, fix in the ventral, fifty-nine in the anal, thirty- 
eight in tlie tail, fifteen in the firfl dorfal, fixty-three in 
the fecond. The ling is the narroweff and longefl of the 
genus, whence its name in feveral languages. The head 
is large, flattened above and below, and ending in a blunt 
point; it is of a brown colour, as is alfo the back. The ' 
eyes are oblong, the pupil black, iris white with a fpot 
of faint yellow. The month is large ; the tongue white, 
thin, and fltarp pointed. Tiie body is narrow, long, and 
round ; yellowifh on the Tides, and of a dirty white on the 
belly ; the lateral line is ffraiglu. The anus is fomewhat 
nearer to tlie head than to the tail. The fcales are oblong, 
and flrongly fixed in the flein. The pedloral and dorfal 
fins are dark grey ; towards the extremity of the dorfals 
there is a black fpot, and alfo on the anal, which fin is 
otherwife grey ; all the fins are edged with white ; the fin 
of the tail is black. 
The ling inhabits particularly in the North Sea ; and 
is taken often about Heligoland at the mouth of the 
Elbe; they are from four to feven feet in length. This 
filh abounds more or lefs upon the coafts all round the 
Britifh ifles; it is, however, mofl frequent near the 
Scilly ifles, and thofe on the weft of Scotland and Ire¬ 
land, wliere it lias long formed a confiderable branch of 
commerce, regulations being framed concerning it fo ear¬ 
ly as the reign of Edward III. The filh is in perfeClion 
from the beginning of February till May ; in June tliey 
depofit their fpawn in the foft muddy bottoms near the 
mouths of rivers; about this time the males feparate from 
the females, many of the former being caught by filher- 
men without a Angle individual of the latter. When the 
ling is in feafon, its liver is white, and abounds with an 
oil of an excellent quality and flavour; but, as Toon as 
the filh becomes out of feafon, the liver gradually alTumes 
a red colour, refembling that of an ox, and it then pro¬ 
duces no oil; the fame change of colour of the liver 
is obfervable in cod, and feveral other fiflies, but not in 
a degree fo remarkable. It would feem, that this oil,, 
which is lodged in the cellular membranes of fifhes, re¬ 
turns into their blood, and fupports them during the pe¬ 
riod of procreation ; a feafon in which they piirfue the 
vvork of generation with fo much eagernefSj that they 
neglect 
