ut slightly, longer
than that of the second dorsal fin; in the whiting, pout, coal-fish,
pollack, hake, ling and burbot, the former is considerably longer than
the latter.

The cod, _Gadus morrhua_, possesses, in common with the other members of
the genus, three dorsal and two anal fins, and a single barbel, at least
half as long as the eye, at the chin. It is a widely-distributed
species, being found throughout the northern and temperate seas of
Europe, Asia and America, extending as far south as Gibraltar, but not
entering the Mediterranean, and inhabits water from 25 to 50 fathoms
deep, where it always feeds close to the bottom. It is exceedingly
voracious, feeding on the smaller denizens of the ocean--fish,
crustaceans, worms and molluscs, and greedily taking almost any bait the
fisherman chooses to employ. The cod spawns in February, and is
exceedingly prolific, the roe of a single female having been known to
contain upwards of eight millions of ova, and to form more than half the
weight of the entire fish. Only a small proportion of these get
fertilized, and still fewer ever emerge from the egg. The number of cod
is still further reduced by the trade carried on in roe, large
quantities of which are used in France as ground-bait in the sardine
fishery, while it also forms an article of human food. The young are
about an inch in length by the end of spring, but are not fit for the
market till the second year, and it has been stated that they do not
reach maturity, as shown by the power of reproduction, till the end of
their third year. They usually measure about 3 ft. in length, and weigh
from 12 to 20 lb, but specimens have been taken from 50 to 70 lb in
weight.

As an article of food the cod-fish is in greatest perfection during the
three months preceding Christmas. It is caught on all parts of the
British and Irish coasts, but the Dogger Bank, and Rockall, off the
Outer Hebrides, have been specially noted for their cod-fisheries. The
fishery is also carried on along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, where
great quantities of the fish are caught with hook and line, and conveyed
to market alive in "well-boats" specially built for this traffic. Such
boats have been in use since the beginning of the 18th century. The most
important cod-fishery in the world is that which has been prosecuted for
centuries on the Newfoundland banks, where it is not uncommon for a
single fisherman to take over 500 of these fish in ten