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59.3

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The head slopes down to the nose ; on the chin is a short beard;and on each side beyond the gills is a large black spot. The fish-ermen assert, that in rough weather haddocks sink down into thesand and ooze in the bottom of the sea, where they shelter them-selves till the storm is over ; for in stormy weather they take none,and those that are taken immediately after a storm have imul ontheir backs. In summer they live on young herrings and othersmall fish ; in winter on the stone-coated worms, a species of Ser-Pula, which the fishermen call haddock-meat. The grand shoal ofhaddocks comes periodically on the Yorkshire coast. It is remark-able that they appeared in 1706, on the 10th of December, andexactly on the same day in 1767: these shoals extended from theshore near three miles in breadth, and in length from Flamborougbhead to Tinmonth castle, and perhaps much farther northwards.An idea may be given of their numbers by the following fact:Three fishermen, within the distance of a mile from Scarboroughharbour, frequently loaded their boat with them twice a-day, takingeach time about a ton of fish ; when they put down their lines bc-J'ond the distance of three miles from the shore, they caught no-thing but dog-fish, which shews how exactly these fish kerp theirlimits. The best haddocks were sold at from 8d. to Is. per store,the smaller sort at a penny and even a halfpenny per score.

G. Lota, the Burbot , in its body lias some resemblance to an'eel, only shorter and thicker; and its motions also resemble thoseef that fish : tliej-are besides very smooth, slippery, and slimy,the head is very ugly, being flat, and shaped like that of a toad:the teeth are very small, hut numerous. On the end of the noseai ‘etwo small beards; on the chin another.

G. Mkrlangus, the Whiting, is a fish of an elegant make:the upper jaw is the longest; the eyes are large, (lie nose is sharp:t"e teeth of the upper jaw are long, and appear above the lower"-'hen closed. The colour of the head and back" is a pale brown ;the lateral line white, and crooked; the belly and sides are silvery,'he last streaked lengthwise with yellow. ’ These fish appear in'ast shoals in spring, keeping at the di-tance of about half a milet° that of three from the shore. They are caught in vast numbersthe line, and afford excellent diversion. They are the most deli-as well as the most wholesome, of any of the genus : but theyh not grow to a large size, the biggest not exceeding 20 inches;'ht‘ usual length being 10 or 12.

G. Mf.rlucius, the Hake, is found in vast abundance ont"any of our coasts, and those of Ireland . There wnts formerly aast stationary fishery of hake on the Nymph Bank off Waterford ;'Uniense quantities appearing there twice a-year; the first shoal^ 0 ming in June, during the mackerel-season ; the other in Septem-.. er > at the beginning of the herring-season, probably in pursuit ofl0Se fish: it was usual for six men with hooks and lines to take* >°00 hakes in one night, besides a considerable quantity ofjJ' er fish. These were salted and sent to Spain , particularly to"ilboa.

^ G. Molva, the Ling, is usually from three to four feet long,J't have been caught seven feet long. The body is very slender;e head flat: the upper jaw is longest; the teeth in that jaw aremall and very numerous ; in the lower, few, slender, and sharp :al* c hin is a small heard. They vary in colour, some being ofolive hue on the sides and back, others cinereous: the belly^ Ue. The ventral fins are white: the dorsal and anal edged withjJ'lte. The tail is marked near the end with a transverse blackits^ ant ^ t'Pf w 'th white. Its English name ling is derived fromls > S th, being a corruption of long. It abounds about the Scillyf es > on the coasts of Scarborough, Scotland and Ireland , andp S a great branch of trade.

hotf ^ ORHUA > or the Common Cod, inhabits the northern seas,l tl , 1 °f Europe and America , in innumerable shoals, and eonsti-i$ an important article of human subsistence. Its general lengthtwo to three feet, and its common weight trom fourteen lo,3 Pounds. It has occasionally, however, been known to weigh°f seventy. Its food consists of small fish, worms, crabs,other testaceous fishes, and its voracity is extraordinary. It is1 'n the extreme, no less than a million ot eggs having

in a single roe. Its sound, or air-bladder, is preserved

' lc in the extreme, no less than a million ot eggs having been\ v a,''*' <a< l in a single roe. Its sound, or air-bladder, is preservedsort 311 f i considered as a luxury ; it is also converted into aPart' 1Sll 'gIass, in preparing which the inhabitants of Iceland area *>d\r Ula, V skilful. Off the coasts of Cape Breton , Novia bcotia,^ ew England, and, more especially, on the great sand-bank olf

8

Newfoundland , this fish is found in inexhaustible abundance; theneighbourhood of the Polar Seas, where they return to deposittheir spawn, and the immense number of worms to be found inthese sandy bottoms being the grand inducements to their prefer-ence of these situations. They are abundant also on the southernand western coasts of Iceland , but proceed towards the south onlyin very diminished numbers, and are rarely seen in that directionbeyond the Straights of Gibraltar. Before the discovery of New-foundland, in 14b6, Iceland was the principal scene for the cod-fishery, which was speedily after that event transferred to New-foundland , where it is conducted to such an extent, merely by thehook, baited with the herring and oilier small fishes, as to furnishemployment for fifteen thousand British seamen, and to a morenumerous portion of population at home, occupied on the variousarticles of manufacture, indispensable fora concern of such vast ex-tent and importance.

G. Pou.achius, the Pollack, has the under jaw longer thanthe upper; the head and body rises pretty high, as far as the firstdorsal fin. The side-line is incurvated, rising towards the middleof the back, then sinking and running straight to the tail; it isbroad and of a brown colour. The colour of the back is dusky,sometimes inclining to green: the sides beneath the lateral line aremarked with lines of yellow ; and the belly is white. This speciesis common on many of our rocky coasts: during summer they areseen in great shoals frolicking on the surface of the water, and fling-ing themselves into a thousand forms. They will then bite at anything that appears on the top of the waves, and are often takenwith a goose-feather fixed to the hook. They are very strong,being observed to keep their station at the feet of the rocks in the-most turbulent and rapid sea. They are good eating. They donot grow to a very large size; the biggest seldom exceeding six" orseven pounds.

GAEL,a town of France in the department ofllle and Yilaine,

1 mile 1?. of St. Maen, audio \V. ofMontfort.

GAELIC, belonging to the Gaels, Celtes , or ancient Scots-Ilighlanders.

GAEI.ICK LANGUAGE, the language of the ancient andmodern Highlanders of Scotland . It is esteemed the most ancientas well as the purest dialect of the Celtic, now spoken. It has allthe marks .of an original language. Most of its words are expressiveof some properly or quality in the objects which they denote.This, with the variety of its sounds, (many of which, especiallythose that express the soft and mournful passions, are peculiar toit,) renders it highly adapted for poetry. It was the language ofthe Scottish Court, till the reign of Malcolm Canmore , and waseven spoken so late as that of Robert Bruce , particularly in a par-liament held by him at Ardchaltan. Its alphabet consists of 18letters, of which five are vowels. “Those who understand it,(says the Rev. Dr. James Robertson, of Callander,) know itsenergy and power; the ease with which it is compounded; theboldness of its figures; its majesty in addressing the Deity , and itstenderness in expressing the finest feelings of the human heart.But its genius and constitution, the structure of its nouns andverbs, and the affinity it has to some other languages are not somuch attended t>». r I hese point at a very remote sera, and seem todeduce its origin from a very high antiquity. The verbs haveonly three tenses, which is the simplest and most natural divisionof time. The persons of each tense are distinguished, by addingpronominal particles to each person. The third person singular ofeach verb has genders, or admits of a masculine and feminine par-ticle affixed. The moods are the indicative, imperative, and in-finitive. The subjunctive differs from the indicative only by theaddition of one syllable to the verb, and a conjunction before it.

I lw imperative has only the second person in both numbers. Theinfinitive is often used as a substantive noun, expressive of the ab-•tract signification of the verb. There is only one conjugation,and one declension. The cases of the nouns are marked by differ-ent particles, or by a change of the last vowel. The degrees ofcomparison are formed by placing certain syllables belore theadjective; and the superlative frequently by a repetition ot thepositive.”

G.LRTNERE, a genus of the decandria monogynia class andorder. The calyx is five-parted ; corolla fivc-petaled: seed-vesselnearly globose, with wings. There is one species, a shrub of theEast Indies.

GAETA,