COD , POLLOCK , HADDOCK AND HAKE . 
34i 
large Codfish has suggested the idea that sometimes they swallow the 
fishermen. 
A wedding ring which belonged to Pauline Burnam, an English lady 
who was lost in the steamship “Anglo Saxon,” wrecked off Chance Cove, 
N. F., in 1861, was lately restored to her relations by a St. Johns (N. F.) 
fisherman, who found the ring in the entrails of a Codfish. The lucky 
fisherman received, a present of £50 for restoring the highly prized 
memento to the lady’s son.* 
Stones of considerable size are often found in their stomachs, and 
fishermen have a theory that this is a sign of an approaching storm and 
that the fish thus take in ballast to enable them to remain at the bottom 
when the waters are troubled. It is more likely that these stones are 
swallowed on account of sea-anemones or other edible substances which 
may be attached to them, in just the same manner that the shells of mol- 
lusks are taken in for the sake of the nutritious parts which they contain. 
It is believed that certain schools of Codfish feed slmost entirely at the 
bottom, while others prey upon fish. The fishermen claim to be able to 
distinguish these two classes by their general appearance, the first being 
heavier, with shorter heads, blunter noses, and smaller fins, and frequently 
known as “ grubbers ” or “ ground-keepers,” while fish belonging to what 
are known as the squid school, the herring school, and the lant school, 
which are probably the same fish at different seasons of the year, are 
brighter-eyed, slenderer in form, with sharper head, and in every way 
better adapted for swift locomotion. On the coast of Labrador, as well 
as in Scandinavia, Codfish follow the schools of spawning capelin in to the 
shore and prey greedily upon them, and elsewhere, at other seasons, they 
feed with no less voracity upon other species of fish which may be school¬ 
ing, and of which they destroy vast numbers, such as mackerel, menhaden, 
herring, alewife, salmon, sculpin, flounders, dinners, and haddock. 
On the Grand Banks, especially in shallow water about the Virgin 
Rocks, I have been told that they follow the lant to the surface, pursuing 
them with great fierceness. Along our northern coasts they replace, to 
some extent, the voracious bluefish and bonito of the South. Capt. 
Atwood remarks that the amount of food which they consume is enormous, 
when the size of the fish is taken into account. He has seen them on the 
coast of Labrador, where the capelin were in great numbers, with their 
* Boston Journal, July g, 1871. 
