These little cuirassed fishes consist of two genera, Syngnathus and Hippocampus. The Syngnathes, or pipe-fishes, possess a very curious organic peculiarity. Their bodies are long, slender, and slightly tapering, covered with plates set lengthwise, without ventrals; the skin, in swelling, forms under the belly or under the tail, according to the species, a pouch into which the eggs glide to be hatched, and which is afterwards a shelter for the young. Most of the species are strangers to European seas, but some few are found in the Channel. The Trumpet Pipe-fish (Fig. 361) has the head small, the muzzle long, nearly cylindrical, slightly raised at the end, and terminating in a very small mouth without teeth. The animal is about twenty inches long; its skin is of a yellowish colour varied with brown. It lives in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, where it is largely used by the fishermen in baiting their hooks. It is found in great abundance in the Atlantic between the Equator and the Western Isles.

The Sea Horse (Hippocampus) is a small creature about the size of the engraving (Fig. 362); its head has a singular resemblance to that of the horse. The rings which constitute the integument of the body and tail have a close resemblance to the rings of some caterpillars. This curious combination of forms originated the name, Hippocampus, from ἵππος, horse, κάμπος, fish, adopted in very ancient times to designate this creature. It is found in the Atlantic, round the coast of Spain, the south of France, in the Mediterranean, and in the Indian Ocean. Mr. Lukis, who raised two females in captivity, describes their habits as follows:—"When they swim," he says, "they preserve a vertical position, but their tail seems on the alert to seize whatever it meets with in the water, clasping the stem of the rushes. Once fixed, the animal seems to watch attentively all the surrounding objects, and darts on any prey presenting itself with great dexterity. When one of them approaches the other, they interlace their two tails, and it is only after a struggle that they can separate again, attaching themselves by the lower part of the chin to some rush in order to release themselves. They have recourse to the same manœuvre when they wish to raise the body, or when they wish to wind their tail to some new object. Their two eyes seem to move independently of each other, like those of the chameleon. The iris is bright and edged with blue."

The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to sustain the body, not only in the water, but even in the air; they are, in fact, winged fishes, and probably originated the famous winged courser of mythology, after which they are sometimes named. They rarely exceed four inches in length; the body is covered with triangular scales, commonly of a bluish colour. They live on worms, fishes' eggs, and fragments of organic substances which they find in the far land at the bottom of the sea.

III. Malacopterygii.

The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays of the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or pectorals. They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes of the utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the cod, the salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists, following Cuvier, subdivide them into three orders:—1. Apoda, without ventrals; 2. Sub-branchiati, ventrals under the pectorals; 3. Abdominales, having ventrals behind the pectorals.

1. APODA.

A single family composes this order, which comprehends great numbers both in genera and species; they are anguilliform or snake-like, elongated in form, the skin thick and soft, and have no ventral fins. In this order are included the Ammodytes, Gymnotes, Murænas, and Anguilla, or eels.

The Ammodytes have the body elongated and serpent-like, having a continuous fin extending along the greater part of the back, with another at the opposite side, and a third or forked fin at the end of the tail. The muzzle is also long; the lower jaw longer than the upper. A. lancea (Fig. 363) buries itself in the sand; hence it is called the sand-eel; it hollows out a burrow for itself in the sand with its muzzle to the depth of fifteen or twenty inches, where it hunts out worms, on which it feeds, while it shelters itself from the jaws of many voracious fishes, which eagerly pursue it for its delicate flesh. In appearance the Ammodytes lancea is silvery blue, brighter on the lower parts than on the upper, the radiating fins on the abdomen being alternately white and bluish in colour.

The gymnotes are long, nearly cylindrical, and also serpent-like, the tail being long in comparison to the other parts of the body. Beneath the tail is a long swimming fin, the only locomotive organ, and it is this nakedness of the back which confers its designation of γυμνὸς, naked, νῶτος, back.

The Gymnotes are fresh-water fishes of South America, where they attain a great size. There are several species, but the most remarkable, from its singular physical properties, is the Electrical Eel, Gymnotus electricus (Fig. 364). These properties enable the gymnotus to arrest suddenly the pursuit of an enemy, or the flight of its prey, to suspend on the instant every movement of its victim, and subdue it by an invisible power. Even the fishermen themselves are suddenly struck and rendered torpid at the moment of seizing it, while nothing external betrays the mysterious power possessed by the animal.

The electrical properties of the gymnotus were reported for the first time by Van Berkal. The astronomer Richer, who had been sent to Cayenne in 1671 by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on the Geodesic Survey, first made known the singular properties of the American fish. "I was much astonished," says this author, "to see a fish some three or four feet in length, and resembling an eel, deprive of all sensation for a quarter of an hour the arm and neighbouring parts which touched it. I was not only an ocular witness of the effect produced by its touch; but I have myself felt it, on touching one of these fishes still living, though wounded by a hook, by means of which some Indians had drawn it from the water. They could not tell what it was called; but they assured me that it struck other fishes with its tail in order to stupefy them and devour them afterwards, which is very probable when we consider the effect of its touch upon a man."

The observations of Richer made little impression at the time on the savants of Paris, and matters remained in this state for seventy years, when the traveller Condamine spoke in his "Voyage en Amérique" of a fish which produced the effects described by Richer. In 1750 a physician named Ingram furnished some new views respecting this fish, which he thought was surrounded by an electric atmosphere. In 1755 another physician, the Dutch Dr. Gramund, writes: "The effect produced by this fish corresponds exactly with that produced by the Leyden jar, with this difference, that we see no tinsel on its body, however strong the blow it gives; for if the fish is large, those who touch it are struck down, and feel the blow on their whole body."

Many experiments followed these; but we are indebted to Alexander von Humboldt for the first precise account of this very curious fish. The celebrated naturalist read to the Institute of France an important memoir upon the electrical eel from Bonpland's observations, the substance of which we shall give here.

In traversing the Llanas of the province of Caracas, in order to embark at San Fernando de Apure on his voyage up the Orinoco, M. Bonpland stopped at Calabozo. The object of this sojourn was to investigate the history of the gymnotus, great numbers of which are found in the neighbourhood. After three days' residence in Calabozo some Indians conducted them to the Cano de Bera, a muddy and stagnant basin, but surrounded by rich vegetation, in which Clusia rosea, Hymenœa courbaril, some grand Indian figs, and some magnificent flowering odoriferous mimosas, were pre-eminent. They were much surprised when informed that it would be necessary to take thirty half-wild horses from the neighbouring savannahs in order to fish for the gymnotus.

The idea of this fishing, called in the language of the country embarbascar con caballos (intoxicating by means of horses), is very odd. The word barbasco indicates the roots of the Lacquinia, or any other poisonous plant, by contact of which a body of water acquires the property of killing, or, at least, of intoxicating or stupefying the fishes. These come to the surface when they have been poisoned in this manner. The horses chasing them here and there in a marsh has, it seems, the same effect upon the alarmed fishes. While our hosts were explaining to us this strange mode of fishing, the troop of horses and mules had arrived, and the Indians had made a sort of battue, pressing the horses on all sides, and forcing them into the marsh. The Indians, armed with long canes and harpoons, placed themselves round the basin, some of them mounting the trees, whose branches hung over the water, and by their cries, and still more by their canes, preventing the horses from landing again. The eels, stunned by the noise, defended themselves by repeated discharges of their batteries. For a long time it seemed as if they would be victorious over the horses. Some of the mules especially, being almost stifled by the frequency and force of the shock, disappeared under the water, and some of the horses, in spite of the watchfulness of the Indians, regained the bank, where, overcome by the shocks they had undergone, they stretched themselves at their whole length. The picture presented was now indescribable. Groups of Indians surrounded the basin; the horses with bristling mane, terror and grief in their eyes, trying to escape from the storm which had surprised them; the eels, yellow and livid, looking like great aquatic serpents swimming on the surface of the water, and chasing their enemies, were objects at once appalling and picturesque. In less than five minutes two horses were drowned. An eel, more than five feet long, glided under one horse, discharged its apparatus through its whole extent, attacking at once the heart, the viscera, and the plexus of the nerves of the animal, probably benumbing and finally drowning it.

When the struggle had endured a quarter of an hour, the mules and horses appeared less frightened, the manes became more erect, the eyes expressed less terror, the eels shunned in place of attacking them, at the same time approaching the bank, when they were easily taken by throwing little harpoons at them attached to long cords, the harpoon, sometimes hooking two at a time, being landed by means of the long cord. They were drawn ashore without being able to communicate any shock.

Having landed the eels, they were transported to little pools dug in the soil, and filled with fresh water; but such is the terror they inspire, that none of the people of the country would release them from the harpoon—a task which the travellers had to perform themselves, and receive the first shock, which was not slight—the most energetic surpassing in force that communicated by a Leyden jar completely charged. The gymnotus surpasses in size and strength all the other electric fishes. Humboldt saw them five feet three inches long. They vary in colour according to age, and the nature of the muddy water in which they live. Beneath, the head is of a fine yellow colour mixed with red; the mouth is large, and furnished with small teeth arranged in many rows.

The gymnotus makes its shock felt in any part of its body which is touched, but the excitement is greater when touched under the belly, and in the pectoral fin. The gymnotus gives the most frightful shocks without the least muscular movement in the fins, in the head, or any other part of the body. The shock, indeed, depends upon the will of the animal, and in this respect differs from a Leyden jar, which is discharged by communicating with two opposite poles. It happens sometimes that a gymnotus, seriously wounded, only gives a very weak shock, but if, thinking it exhausted, it is touched fearlessly and at once, its discharge is terrible. Indeed, the phenomena depend so much upon the will of the animal, that, according to Von Humboldt, if it is touched by two metallic rods, the shock is communicated sometimes by one, sometimes by the other wand, though their extremities are close together.

The experiments already related in connection with the torpedo were repeated here. If we place ourselves upon an isolated support, and take hold of a metallic rod, a shock is received; but no shock is received, on the other hand, if the fish is touched with a glass rod, or one covered with wax. Humboldt and Bonpland repeated this experiment many times, with decisive results. The electric organ has been carefully described by these observers. The organs extend from under the tail, occupying nearly one-half of the thickness. It is divided into four longitudinal bundles of muscles, the upper ones large, the two smaller below, and against the base of the anal fin. Each bundle consists of many parallel membranous plates, placed closely together and very nearly horizontal. These plates abut in one part on the skin, in another, on the mean vertical plane of the fish. They are united to each other by an infinity of smaller plates, placed either vertically or transversely. The smaller prismatic and transversal canal, intercepted by these two orders of plates, are filled with gelatinous matter. All this organic apparatus receives many nerves, and presents, in many respects, an arrangement nearly analogous to that of the torpedoes.

The Sea-Eels (Muræna Helena) are serpent-like fishes, of cylindrical form and delicate proportions, but strong, flexible, and active, swimming in waving, undulating movements in the water, just as a serpent creeps on dry land. The murænas have no pectoral fin; the dorsal and anal fin are reunited in the tail fin. A branchial opening is observable on each side of the body. The sea-eels are numerous in species. Muræna Helena (Fig. 365), which is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, has only a single row of teeth upon each jaw. It attains the length of forty to fifty inches. It loves to bask in the hollows of rocks, approaching the coast in spring-time. It feeds on crabs and small fishes, seeking eagerly for polyps. The voracity of these fishes is such that when other food fails they begin to nibble at each other's tails.

The sea-eels are caught with rod and line, or by lines and ground-bait, but their instinct is such that they often escape. When they have swallowed a hook they often cut the line with their teeth, or they turn upon it and try, by winding it round some object, to strain or break it. When caught in a net, they quickly choose some mesh through which their body can glide.

Those who have studied the classics will remember the passionate love with which the Roman gourmet regarded these fishes. In the days of the Empire enormous sums were expended in keeping up the ponds which enclosed them, and the fish themselves were multiplied to such an extent that Cæsar, on the occasion of one of his triumphs, distributed six thousand among his friends. Licinius Crassus was celebrated among wealthy Romans for the splendour of his eel-ponds. They obeyed his voice, he said, and when he called them they darted towards him in order to be fed by his hands. The same Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Hortensius, another wealthy Roman patrician, wept the loss of their murænas on one occasion, when they all died in their ponds from some disease. This, however, was only a matter of taste, passion, or fashion; sometimes, however, accompanied by cruelty and gross corruption.

It was thought among the Romans that murænas fed with human flesh were the most delicately flavoured. A rich freedman, named Pollion, who must not, however, be confounded with the orator of the name, had the cruelty to order such of his slaves as he thought deserving of death, and sometimes even those who had done nothing to excite his anger, to be thrown to them. On one occasion, when he entertained the Emperor Augustus, a poor slave who attended had the misfortune to break a precious vase; Pollion immediately ordered him to be thrown to the eels. But the indignant emperor gave the slave his freedom, and, in order to manifest his indignation with Pollion, he ordered his attendants to break every vase of value which the freedman had collected in his mansion.

In the present day sea-eels are little esteemed in a gastronomic point of view. Nevertheless they are still sought for on the coast of Italy, and the fishermen avoid with great care the bites of their sharp teeth.

The Eels (Anguilla) have pectoral fins, under which are the gill-openings on each side; the dorsal and anal fins extending up to the tail, mingling with this last, which terminates in a point at the extremity. The eels are divided into two groups: 1. The Eels (Anguilla), properly so called; and, 2. The Congers. The first inhabit most European rivers, except in the spawning season, when, according to some naturalists, they betake themselves to the sea. During the greater part of their existence, therefore, they have no connection with the ocean. The Congers, on the other hand, are fishes of great size, which inhabit the seas of warm countries, as well as those of Northern Europe. The type of this family is the Common Conger, Conger vulgaris (Fig. 366), which differs from the true eels chiefly in the dorsal fins, which commence very near to the pectorals; and also in their upper jaw being longer than their under one. They attain the thickness of a man's leg, and are sometimes two yards in length. The conger-eel is frequently found in salt marshes, but its flesh is held in little esteem.

2. SUB-BRANCHIATI.

The fishes of this order are characterised by vertical fins being attached under the pectorals, and immediately suspended to the shoulder bone. Exclusively marine fishes, they inhabit every region of the globe. The order comprehends three families:—I. Discobolidæ; II. Pleuronectidæ, or flat fishes; III. the Gadidæ.

I. DISCOBOLIDÆ.

The family of Discobolidæ consists of a small number of species characterised by their ventral fins being discoform, as in the sea-snails (Liparis), in which the lengthened mucous body is without scales, but with one long dorsal fin; the pectoral and ventrals forming one disk, as in Fig. 367, or the Suckers (Lepidogaster), where the pectorals and ventrals form two disks.

In the Lump-fish, Cyclopteris (Fig. 368), the disk formed by the ventrals forms a sort of sucker, by which the fish attaches itself to the rocks; while the Echineis is remarkable for the disk-like sucker with which it is provided.

The Echineis remora is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, and abounds in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It is furnished with a flat disk, which covers its head, as represented in Fig. 369, which is formed of a number of transverse and movable cartilaginous plates. Aided by this organ, it attaches itself firmly to rocks, and even to ships and larger fishes, such as the Dog-fish (Acanthius), which it meets with in its wanderings. Its adhesion to those objects is so strong that the strength of a man fails to separate them. It invariably attaches itself to the dorsum and flank of the shark, and sometimes weighs a pound and a quarter. "I have found," writes a friend, "as many as seven on one shark." It is never solitary, and makes long voyages on this monstrous animal locomotive, and that without fatigue or danger, for its enemies are kept at a distance by the formidable monster which carries it.

II. PLEURONECTIDÆ.

The Flat-fishes (Pleuronectidæ) have the body flat and greatly compressed, but in a direction different from that of the Raias and other analogous beings. In the case of the Raia the body is flattened horizontally, while in the Pleuronectidæ they are compressed laterally. The head of fishes of this order is not symmetrical; the two eyes are placed on the same side; the two sides of the mouth are unequal.

To these peculiarities of structure we shall return when we come to observe the several types more clearly. In inaction, as in motion, the flat-fishes are always turned upon their side, and the side turned towards the bottom of the sea is that which has no eye. This habit of swimming on their side is that to which they owe their name of πλευρὰ, side, and νέχτος, swimmers.

Their chief organ of natation is the caudal fin, but they are distinguished from all other fishes by the manner in which they use this oar. When turned upon their side this organ is not horizontal, but vertical, and strikes the water vertically up and down. They advance through the water but very slowly, compared to the motion of other fishes. They ascend or descend in the water with greater promptitude, but they cannot turn to the right or left with the same facility as other fishes. This property of rising or sinking in the water with facility is the more useful to them, inasmuch as the greater part of their existence is passed at the greatest depths, where they draw themselves along the sands at the bottom of the sea, and often hide themselves from their enemies. Among the Pleuronectidæ, soles, turbot, flounders, and plaice may be noted.

Soles (Solea) have the body oblong, the side opposite to the edges generally furnished with shaggy, soft hairs; the muzzles round, nearly always in advance of the mouth, which is twisted to the left side, and furnished with teeth on one side only, while the eyes are on the right side. The dorsal fin commences about the mouth, and extends up to the caudal or terminal fin. The Common Sole, Solea vulgaris (Fig. 370), is plentiful in the Channel, along the Atlantic coasts, and especially in the Mediterranean. It is brown on the right, and whitish on the opposite side. Its pectoral fins are spotted black; the scales rugged and denticulate; its size seems to vary according to the coast it frequents. Off the mouth of the Seine soles are sometimes taken eighteen and twenty inches in length. There are several modes of taking them, but for commercial purposes it is taken by the trawl-net. When the ground-hook is employed it is baited with fragments of small fish. Every one knows the delicate flavour of the flesh of the sole, which, however, varies greatly in different localities, those of the Channel Islands being particularly choice.

The Turbot, Rhombus maximus (Fig. 371), resembles in its general form a lozenge, whence its name of rhombus. Its under jaw is more advanced than the upper jaw, and is furnished with many rows of small teeth. Its fins are yellow, with brownish spots. The left side is marbled brown and yellow; the right side, which is the inferior, white with brownish spots and points. The true turbot is the special delight of the epicure, and fabulous sums are said to have been given at different times by rich persons in order to secure a fine turbot. The fish used to be taken largely on our own coasts, but now we have to rely upon more distant fishing-grounds for a large portion of our supply—large quantities coming from Holland. The turbot spawns during the autumn, and is in fine condition during spring and early summer. Mr. Yarrell says that it spawns in spring. Dr. Bertram doubts this, although he is not quite sure of it, inasmuch as "there will, no doubt, be individuals of the turbot kind, as there are of all other kinds of fish, that will spawn all the year round." The turbot abounds on our west coast, round Torbay, and off the mouth of the Seine and the Somme, from whence comes most of the fish consumed in London and Paris. The flounders, plaice, and halibut form an important section of the Pleuronectidæ.

The Flounders and Plaice (Platessa) inhabit the northern seas of Europe. They have their eyes placed on the right side; the dorsal as well as the anal fin extending from over the eyes to the caudal, both stretching out to a point towards the centre, giving a rhombic form to the fish. In Platessa the jaws are furnished with a single row of obtuse teeth.

The Common Plaice, P. vulgaris (Fig. 372), attains the length of ten or twelve inches; it is brown above, spotted with red or orange. On the eye-side of the head are some osseous tubercles. The body, which is somewhat lozenge-shaped, is smooth.

The Flounders (P. flesus) are fresh-water fishes of small size, abundant in the Thames and many other rivers; they are only second in importance to the soles and turbot among the Pleuronectidæ; the numbers of brill, flounders, dab, and plaice required being close upon a hundred million for the supply of London alone.

The usual mode of capturing flat-fish is by means of a trawl-net, but many varieties of these may be caught with a hand-line. "A day's sea-fishing," says Dr. Bertram, in his "Harvest of the Sea," "will be chequered by many little adventures. There are various minor monsters of the deep that will vary the monotony of the day by occasionally devouring the bait. A tadpole fish, better known as the sea-devil, or angler, may be hooked; or a visit from a hammer-headed shark, or a pile-fish, will add greatly to the excitement; and if the 'dogs' should be at all plentiful, it is a chance if a single fish be got out of the sea in its integrity. So voracious are these Squalidæ, that I have often enough pulled a mere skeleton into the boat, instead of a plump cod of ten or twelve pounds weight."

The Dab, P. limanda (Fig. 373), is very common in the markets of Paris, where it is held in great esteem. It takes its name Limanda from the hard and dentate scales on its body. The Platessa have the jaws furnished with a single row of obtuse teeth; the dorsal fin only extends in front to a line with the eye, leaving an interval between it and the caudal. The form of the body is rhomboidal, as in the turbot, and the eyes are usually on the right side. The flounder, the plaice, and the dab, are all examples of this group of fishes.

The Halibut, Hippoglossus vulgaris (Fig. 374), is a large fish, inhabiting the seas of Northern Europe and Greenland, where it is occasionally caught measuring seven feet, and weighing from three to four hundred pounds. A fish of this species was brought to Edinburgh market in April, 1828, measuring seven feet and a half in length and three feet broad, weighing three hundred and twenty pounds. The body of the halibut is more elongated than that of the plaice or flounder, the jaws and pharyngeans being armed with strong and pointed teeth.

Great quantities of this fish are caught on the Greenland and Norway coasts, and other northern regions. According to Lacepede, the natives fish for this with an implement which they call gangnaed. It is composed of a hempen cord five or six hundred yards in length, to which are attached some thirty smaller cords, each furnished with a barbed hook at its extremity. The larger cord is attached to floating planks, which act as trimmers, indicating the place of this formidable engine of destruction.

The Greenlanders usually replace the hempen cords by thongs of whalebone or narrow bands of shark's skin. At the end of twenty hours these lines are drawn home, and it is not at all unusual to find five or six large halibut caught on the hooks. Pl. XXVIII. represents the native mode of fishing for halibut in the Greenland Seas.

Another mode of capturing this and other flat-fish is to spear them on their sandy beds. "No rule can be laid down," says Dr. Bertram, "for this method of fishing. It is carried on successfully by means of a common pitchfork, but some gentlemen go the length of fine spears made for the purpose, very long, and with very sharp prongs. Others, again, use a three-pronged farmyard graip, which has been known to do as much real work as more elaborate single points contrived for the purpose. The simplest directions I can give is just to spear every fish they see." M. Figuier adds, as a caution, that before attacking these fishes, body to body, it is necessary to wait till they are somewhat exhausted, otherwise they might overturn both bark and fisherman.

The Greenlanders cut the animal up, and salt the pieces; then expose them to the air, in order to dry them preparatory to a long voyage.

In its fresh state the halibut is not very delicate, and is hard and difficult of digestion; however, its great size renders it a valuable prize. We may add that, notwithstanding its great size, the halibut has deadly enemies in the dolphins, as well as in the birds which prey upon fishes on the shore. It is itself a voracious fish, devouring crabs, cod-fish, and even the Raiadæ, not even sparing its own species; they attack each other, nibbling at the tail or fins.

III. GADIDÆ.

The Gadidæ embrace the whole of the Linnæan genus Gadus. They are found mostly in the seas of cold or temperate regions in both hemispheres, and are the objects of pursuit for which the great fisheries of Europe and America are established. They are known by the position of the ventral fin under the throat, and by the pointed character of those fins. The body is long and slightly compressed; the head well proportioned. Their fins are soft, and their scales are small and soft. The jaws and front of the os vomer have unequal-pointed teeth of moderate size, and disposed in several rows. The gill-covers are large, and consist of seven rays. Most of the species have the dorsal fin, and contain two others besides—a fin behind the vent, and a distant caudal fin. The stomach is large, and the intestine long. The air-bladder large and strong, and in some cases notched on the margin. The flesh of most of the species yields white, healthy, and agreeable food, easily separable into flakes when cooked, and easy of digestion. The family includes the several genera:—Morrhua, to which belongs the Common Cod-fish, M. callarias; the Haddock, M. æglefinus.—The Merlangus, or Whiting, M. vulgaris, and M. albus; the Coal-fish, M. carbonarus; and the Pollack, M. pollachius.—The Merlucius, or Hakes.—The Lota, or Ling, L. molva.—Motella, or Rock Ling, and Silver Gade, M. argenteola; and other genera of less importance.

The head of the Cod (Morrhua callarias) is compressed; the eyes placed on the side, close to each other, and veiled by a transparent membrane, a conformation which, according to Lacepede, enables the animal to swim on the surface of the water in northern regions in the midst of mountains of ice and under banks covered with snow, without being dazzled by the brilliant light; but this opinion is unsupported by any other naturalist of note.

The jaws of the cod-fish are unequal, and among the rows of teeth with which it is armed many are mobile, and can be hidden in their cavities, or raised, according to the will of the animal. The dorsal fins, three in number, are in clusters, as in Fig. 375; anal fins are two; pectoral fins narrow, and terminating in a point; caudal fin slightly forked. Its colour is of an ashy grey, spotted with yellow on the back; white and sometimes reddish beneath.

The cod-fish is provided with a vast stomach, and is very voracious, feeding on fishes, crabs, and molluscs. It is so gluttonous and indiscriminating, that it will even swallow pieces of wood and other similar objects. This is essentially a sea-fish: it is never seen in fresh-water streams or rivers, remaining during the greater part of the year in the depths of the sea. Its habitual sojourn is in the portion of the Northern Ocean lying between the fortieth and sixty-sixth degrees of latitude.

In the vast range thus frequented by the cod, two large spaces are pointed out which it seems to prefer. The first extends to the coast of Greenland, and the other is limited by Iceland, Norway, the Danish coast, Germany, Holland, and the east and north coast of Great Britain and the Orkney Isles, comprehending the Doggerbank, Vellbank, and Cromer coast, together with salt-water lakes and arms of the sea, such as the Gairloch, Portsoy, and the Moray Firth, which indent the west coast of Scotland, and attract considerable shoals of cod-fish.

The second range, less generally known, but more celebrated among sailors, includes the coast of New England, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and, above all, the island of Newfoundland, on the south coast of which is the famous sand-bank called the Great Bank, having a length of nearly two hundred leagues, with a breadth of sixty-two, over which flows from ten to fifty fathoms of water. Here the cod-fish swarm, for here they meet shoals of herrings and other animals, on which they feed. Such is, according to Lacepede, the geographical distribution of the cod-fish.

The English, French, Dutch, and Americans give themselves up to the cod-fishery on the bank of Newfoundland with inconceivable ardour. This island was discovered and visited by the Norwegians in the tenth and eleventh centuries, long before the discovery of America; but it was only in 1497, after the discoveries of Columbus, that the navigator, John Cabot, having visited these regions, gave it the name by which it has since been known, and called attention to the swarms of cod-fish which inhabited the surrounding sea. Immediately after, the English and some other nations hastened to reap these fruitful fields of living matter. In 1578, France sent a hundred and fifty ships to the great bank, Spain a hundred and twenty-five, Portugal fifty, and England forty.

During the first half of the eighteenth century, England and her colonies, with the French, cultivated the cod-fishery.

From 1823 to 1831 France sent three hundred and forty-one ships, with seven thousand six hundred and eighty-five men, which carried into port over fifty million pounds of fish, an average of about six millions annually. Two thousand English ships of various sizes, manned by thirty thousand seamen, are now employed in this important branch of industry.

On the coast of Norway, from the frontiers of Russia to Cape Lindesnæs, the cod-fishery is an important branch of trade, in which a maritime population of twenty thousand fishermen are employed, with five thousand boats.

The cod is taken either by net or line. The net is chiefly employed at Newfoundland. The net used is rectangular, and furnished with lead at the lower edge, and cork buoys on the upper edge. One of the extremities is fixed on the coast; the other is carried seaward, following a curve taken by the boats, and the fish are attracted by drawing upon both extremities of the net; and by one stroke many boat-loads are sometimes taken.

The modern cod-smack is clipper-built, with large wells for carrying the fish alive, its cost being about £1500. The crew usually consists of ten to twelve men and boys, including the captain. The line is also used for taking cod and haddocks. "Each man," says Bertram, "has a line of fifty fathoms in length, and attached to each of these lines are a hundred 'snoods,' with hooks already baited with mussels, pieces of herring, or whiting. Each line is laid 'clear,' in a shallow basket, and so arranged as to run freely as the boat shoots ahead. The fifty-fathom line with a hundred hooks is in Scotland called a 'taes.' If there are eight men in a boat, the length of the line will be four hundred fathoms, with eight hundred hooks, the lines being tied to each other before setting. On arriving at the fishing-ground, the fishermen heave overboard a cork buoy, with a flagstaff about six feet in height attached to it. This buoy is kept stationary by a line, called the 'pow end,' reaching to the bottom of the water, where it is held by a stone or a grapnel fastened to the lower end. To the 'pow end' is also fastened the fishing line, which is then paid out as fast as the boat sails, which may be from four to five knots an hour. Should the wind be unfavourable for the direction in which the crew wish to set the line, they use the oars. When the line or 'taes' is all out, the end is dropped and the boat returns to the buoy. The 'pow' line is hauled up with the anchor and fishing line attached to it. The fishermen then haul in the line, with the fish attached to it. Eight hundred fish might be taken, and often have been, by eight men in a few hours by this operation; but many fishermen say now, that they consider themselves fortunate when they get a fish on every fifth hook on an eight-lined 'taes'-line."

Hungry cod-fish will seize almost any kind of bait, and this is used either fresh or salted. The fresh bait is furnished by the herring, whiting, and capelan, a little fish which in the spring descends from the North Sea in shoals, pursued by the cod-fish. In the terror caused by the innumerable bands of their enemies, the capelans spread themselves in all the seas round Newfoundland in masses so thick that the waves throw them ashore, and they accumulate occasionally in heaps upon the sandy beach.

The principal fishery for capelan intended for bait takes place on the coast of Newfoundland. The inhabitants of these regions carry their booty to the fishermen, who make Saint-Pierre their rendezvous, with whom they find ready purchasers.

The schooners, with a fair provision of bait, leaving Saint-Pierre and other ports, take a north-easterly direction towards the great bank, and, having chosen their fishing-ground, cast anchor in fifty or sixty fathoms, and forthwith the crews give their sole attention to the lines; some of them watch the lines, which are raised every instant, the captured fish removed, and the hooks re-baited; others subject the captured fishes to a first preparation for preserving them; they are opened, the entrails removed, and the fish split in two, and piled one on the other, and covered with salt. This labour goes on as long as the fishing lasts. The sailor is on deck night and day, covered with oil and blood, and surrounded with all sorts of offal and fish-like smells. But this alone is insufficient. Boats, manned by crews of two or three sailors, are continually moving about, attending to the more distant lines, or "taes," which radiate round the ship in all directions.

One portion of the cod caught is despatched to Europe in a fresh state, without other preparation than the salting which they receive on the deck of the schooner. But much the greater portion are carried on shore and subjected to further preparation. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Islands, which are granted to the French fishermen on condition that no fortifications are erected on them, is resorted to for the purpose by the French fleet; St. John's, the capital, by the English. The Comte de Gobineau gives an animated picture of the whole process of curing the cod-fish in the "Tour du Monde for 1863." "The French houses which pursue this branch of trade," he says, "belong principally to the Ports of Granville and St. Breuc; and the crews of their ships consist of two very distinct elements; the smaller portion, being specially raised among the fishermen properly so called, they form the aristocracy on board; to these are added a larger number of mere labourers, who are landed on the arrival of the vessel at her port. Their functions are limited to receiving the fish from the boats, opening it, washing off the glutinous matter in the chauffant, putting the liver apart, and laying out the split fish between the layers of salt; finally, subjecting it to the different phases of the drying process on the strand.

"The chauffant is a shed raised upon piles, standing one half in the water and one half on shore; it is constructed of planks and posts, through which the air is suffered to circulate freely, but covered in with some of the ship's sails. Here the process of separating the intestines from the body of the fish, and the salting process are carried on, in the midst of an atmosphere charged with all manner of disgusting smells, for the labourer is by no means delicate, and never thinks of removing the disgusting impurities which he is creating. There he stands, knife in hand, tearing and cutting out intestines and separating vertebræ, his only care being to avoid cutting himself, which is the chief danger he runs, in the midst of odours sufficient to produce suffocation.

"Connected with the platform, on which this rough operation is performed is a cauldron, sunk in the earth, to receive the oil pressed out of the liver. This cauldron is surmounted by a roof some nine feet in height, in the form of an inverted cone. Here the oil which flows from the open way above is suffered to remain, after which it is drawn off into casks.

"The drying sheds, formerly of wood, are now constructed of stone, and in places well exposed to the sun, and especially to the wind, artificial or otherwise. The sun, it is said, does not dry, but scorches; the wind, on the other hand, marvellously fulfils the purpose, and in order to avoid the one and court the other, an apparatus has been invented, consisting of long movable branches, which can be inclined so as to bring the wind directly upon the row of cod, in connection with the sun's rays, which are, indeed, not very formidable in this foggy region."

The cod-fish thus dried at Newfoundland are forwarded for consumption to all parts of the world; but only a small part of the products of the fishery are thus prepared. More than half the produce of the French fleet are sent to France merely salted, by ships which carry salt, bringing back fish in return to Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Cette, where the process of curing is completed. In our home fisheries, to abbreviate slightly Dr. Bertram's account, the greater part of the cod taken are eaten fresh, but considerable quantities of the cod and ling taken on the coast are sent to market cured. The process pursued is very simple: they are brought on shore quite fresh, and are at once split from head to tail, and by copious washings thoroughly cleansed from all particles of blood; a piece of the backbone is cut away; they are drained, and afterwards laid down in long vats, where they are covered with salt, and kept under heavy weights. By-and-by the fish are taken out of the vats; they are once more drained, and carefully brushed, to remove any impurity, and bleached by being spread out singly on the sandy beach, or on the rocks; when thoroughly bleached, they are collected into heaps technically called steeples, and when the bloom, or whitish appearance, comes out on the fish, they are ready for the market.

The cod is one of our best-known fishes, and was at one time much more plentiful and cheap. It is a deep-water fish, found in all northern seas, and in the Atlantic, but never in the Mediterranean. It is extremely voracious, greedily eating up the smaller denizens of the ocean. It grows to a large size, and is very prolific, as most fishes are. A cod-roe has been found more than once to be half the gross weight of the fish, and specimens of the female cod have been caught with upwards of eight millions of eggs. The fish spawn in mid-winter: but here our information ceases; when it becomes reproductive is unknown. Dr. Bertram thinks that it is at least three years old before it is endowed with breeding power.

The growth of the cod is supposed to be very slow. Dr. Bertram quotes the authority of a rather learned fisherman of Buckie, who had seen a cod which had got enclosed in a large rock pool, and he found that it did not grow at a greater rate than eight to twelve ounces per annum, though it had abundance of food.

On our own coast two modes of fishing are in common use: one by deep-sea lines, on each of which hooks are fastened at distances twelve feet apart by means of short lines six feet long, called on the Cornish coast "snoods." Buoys, ropes, or grapnels, are fixed to each end of the long line, to keep them from entanglement with each other. The hooks are baited with capelan, lance, or whelks, and the lines are shot across the tide about the time of slack water, in from forty to fifty fathoms, and are hauled in for examination after six hours.

An improvement has been introduced upon this mode of fishing by Mr. Cobb. He fixes a small piece of cork about twelve inches above the hook, which suspends the bait, and exhibits it more clearly to the fish by the motion of the wave. The fishermen, when not engaged in hauling, shooting, or baiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines, holding one in each hand, each armed with two hooks, kept apart by a strong piece of wire. A heavy weight attached to the lower end of each line keeps it steady near the ground, where the fish principally feed. Enormous quantities of cod, haddock, whiting, and coal-fish, with pollack, hake, ling, and torsk, are taken in this way all round our coast. Of cod-fish alone four hundred to five hundred and fifty have been taken in ten hours by one man, and eight men have taken eighty score of cod in one day, fishing off the Doggerbank in five and twenty fathoms water. Latterly the Norfolk and Lincoln, and even the Essex, coasts, have yielded a large supply of fish, which are caught as described, and are stowed in well-boats, in which they are carried to Gravesend, whence they are transhipped into market-boats, and sent up to Billingsgate by each evening tide; the store-boats not being allowed to come up higher, as the fresh water would kill the fish.

The Haddock (Morrhua æglefinus) is common in our markets; it is much smaller than the cod, but in other respects not unlike it. It frequents the same localities, and is caught with long lines baited usually with mussels; the old fish keep close in shore, and are only got with herring bait. In the village of Findhorn, Morayshire, large numbers of haddocks are dried and smoked with the fumes of hard wood and sawdust. Hence the term "Finnan haddies," an article in such request at a Scottish breakfast. The village of Findhorn affords a very small portion of the haddocks sold as such, but the true "Finnans" are supposed to have the finest flavour.

The Whiting, Merlangus vulgaris (Fig. 376), by some amateurs considered the most delicate of all the Gadidæ, is plentiful all round our coast. It spawns in March, and the eggs are quickly hatched. It prefers a sandy shore, and is usually found some miles from the coast. It is a small fish, rarely exceeding twelve inches long, and seldom reaching two pounds in weight. The whiting is long in the body, clothed with very small, thin, and round scales; its dorsal fins are, like the cod, three in number; it is without barbellary appendage; its upper jaw projects over the lower; it is of a silvery white, sometimes relieved by an olive tint, which is contrasted upon the back by the blackish tint which distinguishes the pectoral and caudal fins, and by a black spot which some individuals have at the junction of the pectorals with the body.