the specific gravity; for the spine, medulla spinalis, muscles, fin, and air-bladder, are continued through its whole length. Besides which part, there is a membrane passing from the spine to that fin which runs along the belly or lower edge of the animal. This membrane is broad at the end next to the head, terminating in a point at the tail. It is a support for the abdominal fin, gives a greater surface of support for the organ, and makes a partition between the organs of the two opposite sides."

[Bloch. Shaw. J. Hunter.

SECTION IV.

Cod-fish.

Radus morhua.-LINN.

THIS highly important and prolific species, which furnishes employment for so many thousands, and forms so considerable a part of the subsistence of mankind, is an inhabitant of the northern seas, where it resides in immense shoals, performing many migrations at stated seasons, and visiting in succession the different coasts of Europe and America. Its history is so well detailed by Mr. Pennant, that little can be added to what that author has collected in his British and Arctic Zoology.

"The general rendezvous of the cod-fish," says Mr. Pennant, " is on the banks of Newfoundland, and the other sand-banks that lie off the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New England. They prefer those situations on account of the quantity of worms produced in those sandy bottoms, which tempts them to resort there for food; but another cause of this particular attachment to those spots is their vicinity to the polar seas, where they return to spawn: there they deposit their roe in full security, but want of food forces them, as soon as the first more southern seas are open, to repair thither for subsistence. Few are taken north of Iceland, but on the south and west coasts they abound: they are again found to swarm on the coasts of Norway, in the Baltic, off Orkney, and the Western Isles; after which their numbers decrease, in proportion as they advance towards the south, when they seem quite to cease before they reach the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar."

Before the discovery of Newfoundland, the greater fisheries of cod were on the seas of Iceland and our own Western Isles, which were the grand resorts of the ships of all the commercial nations, but it seems that the greatest plenty was met with near Iceland.

Newfoundland, a name in the infancy of discovery common to all North America, was discovered in the year 1496, by the celebrated Venetians, Sebastian Cobat and his three sons; who, at their own charges, under a grant of Henry the Seventh, giving them possession, as vassals of his, of all the lands they might discover, coasted from lat. 57. 30 to the Capes of Florida.

The isle of Newfoundland is of a triangular form, and lies between lat. 46. 40. and 51. 30: visited occasionally, but not inhabited, by savages from the continent. The boasted mine of this island, viz. its sand bank, is represented as a vast submarine mountain, of above 500 miles long, and 300 broad, and seamen know when they approach it, by the great swell of the sea, and the thick mists that impend over it. The water on the bank is from twenty-two to fifty fathoms; on the outside from sixty to eighty; and on the smaller banks much the same. The number of ships that resort to these fertile banks is now unspeakable: our own country still enjoys the greatest share, and they ought to be esteemed one of our chief treasures, bringing wealth to individuals, and strength to the state. All this immense fishery is carried on by the hook and line only the principal baits are herring, the small fish called a capelin, the shell-fish called clams, and pieces of sea-fowl; and with these are caught fish sufficient to find employ for fifteen thousand British seamen, and to afford subsistence to a much more numerous body of people at home, who are engaged in the various manufactures which so vast a fishery demands. The fish, when taken, are properly cleaned, salted, and dried, and in this state sent into various parts of the European continent.

The cod grows to a very large size. Mr. Pennant commemorates a specimen taken on the British coasts which weighed seventyeight pounds, and measured five feet eight inches in length, and five feet in girth round the shoulders; but the general size, at least in the British seas, is far less, and the weight from about fourteen to forty pounds; and such as are of middling size are most esteemed for the table.

The cod is of a moderately long shape, with the abdomen very

thick and prominent; the head is of moderate size, and the eyes large; the jaws of equal length, the lower one bearded at the tip by a single cirrus; in the jaws and palate are numerous sharp teeth; the dorsal and anal fins are rather large, the pectoral rather small; the ventral small and slender; the tail of moderate size, and even at the end, the first ray on each side being short, strong, and bony. The usual colour of this fish is cinereous on the back and sides, and commonly spotted with dull yellow; the belly white or silvery; but the colours occasionally vary very considerably, and instances are often seen in which a yellow, orange, or even red tint prevails on the upper parts of the body, while the spots are lighter or deeper according to the different seasons in which the fish is taken; the lateral line, which is one of the principal distinctive marks of the species, is broad and whitish, and the scales are somewhat larger than in the other genus.

The food of the cod is either small fish, worms, testaceous or crustaceous animals, such as crabs, large whelks, &c. its digestion is so powerful as to dissolve the greatest part of the shells it swallows it is very voracious, catching at any small body it perceives moved by the water, even stones and pebbles, which are often found in the stomach. The fishermen are well acquainted with the use of the air bladder or sound of this fish, and dexterously perforate the living fish with a needle, in order to let out the air contained in that part; for without this operation the fish could not be kept under water in the well-boats, and brought fresh to market. The sounds when salted, are reckoned a delicacy, and are often brought in this state from Newfoundland. A species of isinglass is also prepared from this part of the fish by the natives of Iceland. [Shaw. Pennant.

SECTION V.

Mackarel.

Scomber scomber.-LINN.

THIS beautiful fish is a native of the European and American seas; generally appearing at stated seasons, and swarming in vast shoals round particular coasts. Its great resort however seems to be within the Arctic circle, where it resides in innumerable troops,

grows to a larger size than elsewhere, and is supposed to find its favourite food, consisting chiefly of marine insects, in far greater plenty than in warmer latitudes. During the severity of the northern winter, it is said to lie imbedded in the soft mud, beneath the vast crusts of ice surrounding the polar coasts; being thus sufficiently protected from the effects of frost; and, on the return of spring, is generally believed to migrate in enormous shoals, of many miles in length and breadth, and to visit the coasts of more temperate climates, in order to deposit its spawn. Its route has been supposed nearly similar to that of the herring; passing between Iceland and Norway, and proceeding towards the northern part of our own island, where a part throws itself off into the Baltic, while the grand column passes downwards, and enters the Mediterranean through the straits of Gibraltar.

This long migration of the mackarel, as well as of the herring, seems at present to be greatly called in question: and it is thought more probable that the shoals which appear in such abundance round the more temperate European coasts, in reality reside during the winter at no very great distance; immersing themselves in the soft bottom, and remaining in a state of torpidity *; from which they are awakened by the warmth of the returning spring, and gradually recover their former activity. At their first appearance their eyes are observed to appear remarkably dim, as if covered with a kind of film, which passes off as the season advances, when they appear in their full perfection of colour and vigour.

The general length of the mackarel is from twelve to fifteen or sixteen inches; but in the northern seas it is occasionally found of far greater size, and among those which visit our own coasts instances sometimes occur of specimens far exceeding the general size of the rest. The colour of this fish, on the upper parts, as far as the lateral line, is a rich deep blue, accompanied by a varying tinge of green, and marked by numerous black transverse streaks, which in the male are nearly straight, but in the female beautifully undulated; the jaws, gill-covers, and abdomen, are of a bright

* Of this the Count de Cepede adduces the testimony of an eye-witness; viz. Mons. Pleville-le-Peley, who, about the coasts of Hudson's Bay, observed the mud at the bottom of the small clear hollows encrusted with ice round those coasts, entirely bristled over by the tails of mackarels imbedded in it nearly three parts of their length.

silver colour, with a slight varying cast of gold-green along the sides, which are generally marked in the direction of the lateral line by a row of long dusky spots; the scales are very small, oval, and transparent; the pinnules or spurious fins are small, and are five in number both above and below. The shape of the mackarel is highly elegant, and it is justly considered as one of the most beautiful of the European fishes. Its merit as an article of food is universally established, and it is one of those fishes which have maintained their reputation through a long succession of ages; having been highly esteemed by the ancients, who prepared from it the particular condiment or sauce known to the Romans by the title of garum, made by salting the fish, and after a certain period, straining the liquor from it. This preparation, once so famous, has been long superseded by the introduction of the anchovy, for similar purposes. [Willoughby. Pennant. Shaw.

SECTION VI.

Remora, or Sucking-Fish.

Echeneis remora.-LINN.

THE extraordinary faculty which this fish possesses, of adhering at pleasure with the utmost tenacity to any moderately flat surface, was not unobserved by the ancients, and is described in terms of considerable luxuriance by Pliny in particular, who, giving way to the popular prejudices of his time, represents the remora as possessing the power of stopping a vessel in full sail, so as to render it perfectly immoveable in the midst of the sea.

"Ventum est ad summa naturæ," &c.

Let the reader take the translation in the words of Philemon Holland.

"Having so far proceeded in the discourse of Nature's historie, that I am now arrived at the very height of her forces, and come into a world of examples, I cannot chuse but in the first place consider the power of her operations, and the infininesse of her secrets, which offer themselves before our eyes in the sea: for in no part else of this universal frame is it possible to observe the like majestie of nature: insomuch as we need not seeke any farther, nay we ought not to make more search into her divinitie, considering there