Dorset and Devonshire, as well as in Cornwall. It is a good tasted fish, when properly stuffed and baked. The flavour of the flesh is similar to that of the haddock.

Whilst it is in the water, the colours of the Red Gurnard are almost beyond conception brilliant and beautiful, particularly in the broad glare of sunshine, as they then vary, in the most pleasing manner, with every motion of the fish.

The Gray Gurnard usually measures from one to two feet in length. The extremity of the head, in front, is armed on each side with three short spines. The forehead and the covers of the gills are silvery; and the latter are finely radiated. The body is covered with small scales; the upper parts are of a deep gray, spotted with white and yellow, and sometimes with black; and the lower parts are silvery. About the months of May and June, the Gray Gurnards approach the sea-shores in considerable shoals, for the purpose of depositing their spawn upon the shallows; at other times they reside in the depths of the ocean, where they have a plentiful supply of food in crabs, lobsters, and shell-fish, on which it is supposed they, for the most part, feed. They are occasionally found on most of the shores of Great Britain and Ireland, in the spawning season.

The Lucerna is caught in the Mediterranean sea, and is of a very curious shape; its fins about the gills being so large, and spread so much like a fan on each side, that they appear somewhat like wings. The tail is bifid, and the scales very small. The flesh is esteemed among the Italians, and the Lucerna is often seen in the fish markets of Naples, Venice, and other towns on the sea-shore. This fish much resembles the Father-Lasher and the Gurnard.

It would be an inexcusable neglect to pass this fish unnoticed, not on account of its disputing with the haddock the honour of having been pressed by the fingers of the apostle; nor of its having been trodden upon by the gigantic foot of St. Christopher, when he carried on his shoulders a divine burden across an arm of the sea; but for the excellence of its flesh. It has been for some years in such favour with our epicures, that one of them, a comedian of high repute (Quin), took a journey to Plymouth merely to eat John Dorees in perfection. The body of this fish presents the shape of a rhomboid, but the sides are much compressed; the mouth is large, and the snout long, composed of several cartilaginous plates, which wrap and fold one over another, in order to enable the fish to catch its prey. The colour is a dark green, marked with black spots, with a golden gloss, whence the name originated. They inhabit the coasts of England, and particularly Torbay, whence they are sent to the fish market at London.

When the Doree is taken alive out of the water, it is able to compress its internal organs so rapidly, that the air, in rushing through the openings of the gills, produces a kind of noise somewhat like that which, in similar occasions, is emitted by the gurgards.

Is a noble inhabitant of the seas; not only on account of his size, but also for the goodness of his flesh, either fresh or salted. The body measures sometimes above three and even four feet in length, with a proportionable thickness. The back is of a brown olive colour, with white spots on the sides, and the belly is entirely white. The eyes are large and staring. The head is broad and fleshy, and esteemed a delicious dish.

The fecundity of all fishes is an object of real astonishment to every observer of nature. In the year 1790, a Cod-fish was sold in Workington market, Cumberland, for one shilling; it weighed fifteen pounds, and measured two feet nine inches in length, and seven inches in breadth; the roe weighed two pounds ten ounces, one grain of which contained three hundred and twenty eggs. The whole, therefore, might contain, by fair estimation, three million nine hundred and four thousand four hundred and forty eggs. From such a trifle as this we may observe the prodigious value of the fishing trade to a commercial nation, and

hence draw a useful hint for increasing it; for, supposing that each of the above eggs should arrive at the same perfection and size, its produce would weigh twenty-six thousand one hundred and twenty-three tons; and consequently would load two hundred and sixty-one sail of ships, each of one hundred tons burden. If each fish were brought to market, and sold as the original one, for one shilling, the produce then would be one hundred and ninety-five thousand pounds, that is to say, the first shilling would produce twenty times one hundred and ninety-five thousand, or three million nine hundred thousand shillings.

The chief fisheries for Cod are in the Bay of Canada, on the great bank of Newfoundland, and off the isle of St. Peter, and the isle of Sable. The vessels frequenting these fisheries are from a hundred to two hundred tons burden, and will each catch thirty thousand Cod, or upwards. The best season is from the beginning of February to the end of April. Each fisherman takes only one Cod at a time, and yet the more experienced will catch from three to four hundred in a day. It is fatiguing work, owing particularly to the intense cold they are obliged to suffer during the operation. The Latin name for this fish and several other of the kind is asellus, a young ass," on account of his large head and dusky colour.

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Cod frequently grow to a very great size. The largest that is known to have been caught in this kingdom was taken at Scarborough, in the year 1775; it measured five feet eight inches in length, and five feet in circumference, and weighed seventy-eight pounds. The usual weight of these fish is from fourteen to forty pounds.

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Is much less in size than the cod-fish, and differs somewhat from it in shape; it is of a bluish colour on the back, with small scales; a black line is carried on from the upper corner of the gills on both sides down to the tail; in the middle of the sides, under the line a little beneath the gills, is a black spot on each shoulder, which resembles the mark of a man's finger and thumb; from which circumstance it is called St. Peter's fish, alluding to the fact recorded in the seventeenth chapter of St. Matthew: "Go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up, and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money; that take and give unto them for me and thee." And while St. Peter held the fish with his fore finger and thumb, it is fabled, that the skin received then, and preserved to this moment, the hereditary impression.

Haddocks migrate in immense shoals, which usually arrive on the Yorkshire coasts about the middle of winter. These shoals are sometimes known to extend from the shore nearly three miles in breadth, and in length from Flamborough Head to Tynemouth Castle,