AMERICAN FISHES. 
Upon the obverse is a plow with the legend “Speed the Plough,” upon 
the reverse a salted Codfish with the words, “ Success to the Fisheries.” 
Codfish feed upon all marine animals smaller than themselves which are 
found in the same waters with them and are digestible. For a long period 
of years, before our naturalists learned to use the hand-dredge, a favorite 
place in which to search for the rare invertebrates of the deep water was 
the fish-dealer’s stall, and from the stomachs of Codfish scores of shells 
new to science have been taken. Since the introduction of improved 
methods of deep-sea research the mode of collecting has been somewhat 
less prosperous, but even at the present time many important additions to 
zoology are yearly made by the aid of this omnivorous animal. 
Codfish swallow bivalve shells of the largest size, like the great sea 
clams, which are a favorite article of food on certain portions of the coast; 
for instance, in Ipswich Bay great beds of empty shells of the sea-clam, 
Mactra ovalis, may be found upon the bottom. These shells are 
“nested,” the smaller inside of the larger, sometimes six or seven in a 
set, having been packed together in this compact manner in the stomachs 
of the Codfish after the soft parts have been digested out. Some of them 
had shreds of the mussels remaining in them and were quite fresh, having 
evidently been but recently ejected by the fish. In Dana’s “ Geology ” 
are mentioned great banks of dead shells off the island of Grand Manan, 
which doubtless originated in the same manner. Mr. W. H. Dali found 
some similar beds on the coast of Alaska which he attributed to the walrus, 
but which are more probably the remains of mollusks eaten by the Codfish. 
They feed also upon crabs of all kinds, lobsters and star fish, and have 
been seen at the surface catching the potato beetles and “ June-bugs ” 
which have drifted out from the shore. It is said that they succeed occa¬ 
sionally in capturing a duck,* and that they vary their diet by browsing 
upon carrageen, or Irish moss, which grows on the ledges near the shore. 
In searching at the bottom for shells and worms, Codfish often pick up 
objects which can hardly be regarded as nutritious. A very amusing 
catalogue of such objects might be included in this chapter, in which 
would be enumerated articles such as scissors, brass oil-cans, potato 
parings, corn cobs, and head of a rubber doll. The finding of finger- 
rings and fragments of oil-clothing, and the heel of a boot, inside of a 
* The Vineyard Gazette says that Mr. James Osborne took a Codfish on Wednesday, at the “ South Side,” 
which weighed over sixty pounds. On dressing it, two full-grown ducks (old squaws) were found it its en¬ 
trails. They were quite fresh, having most of their feathers.—Gloucester Telegraph, May 6, 1857. 
