Photo by Dr. Robert T. Morris, New York. Printed at Lyons, France.
A SALMON LEAPING.
The height to which salmon will leap in ascending a waterfall is little short of marvellous. When the fall is very high the ascent is often accomplished in a series of leaps, the fish resting in pools of comparatively still water.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE COD FAMILY.
BY JOHN BICKERDYKE, M.A.
The large and important Cod Family belongs to the order of Spineless Fishes and the group in which both sides of the head are symmetrical. The Common Cod, the Whiting, the Haddock, the Pollack, the Coal-fish, the Hake, the Ling, and the little Rocklings, all belong to this important family, which has one representative in fresh-water, the Burbot, or Eel-pout, found in various rivers in Central and Northern Europe and North America.
Perhaps the most remarkable member of the Cod Family is the Chiasmodus, which has huge jaws lined with large pointed teeth, and a distensible stomach and abdomen. During the Challenger Expedition a specimen was taken 1,500 fathoms down in the North Atlantic. It had swallowed another fish, a kind of scopelus, more than twice its own size. The stomach of the chiasmodus had swelled to an enormous extent, and had become so thin from distension that the fish inside could be clearly seen through its walls. The scopelus, it is interesting to mention, is a fish brought up sometimes by the dredge from 2,500 fathoms. It occasionally comes to the surface at night, and has phosphorescent spots along its sides, giving out a dim light, which has its uses in the dark depths of the sea.
To come back to the head of the family, the Cod is a fairly plentiful fish all around the British and Irish coasts, but appears to be decreasing in some waters as time goes on, owing to the over-trawling of the North Sea. Off the coasts of Norway, in the neighbourhood of the Lofoden Islands, the cod are sometimes so thickly packed in shoals that as the fishermen lower their tackle they can feel the leads hitting the backs of the fishes. Both there and off the Faröe Islands and Iceland it is common practice to fish with a hook bearing a little piece of polished lead on its shank, no other bait being required, owing to the cod being so numerous that food is scarce.