Date: Sunday f 20, 2012
Dorse Sea Fish
The Dorse is especially a fish of the north, for it exists in large numbers in the sea about Greenland, and even in the Frozen Ocean on the north of America. It is familiarly known also on the coast of Norway and Sweden, and further in the Baltic, where it is said to ascend rivers as far as the tide reaches, but its appearance further south is uncommon, and it is only as a rare straggler that it has shewn itself in the west of England or south of Ireland.
Yet I have known a few instances in which it has been taken on the north and south borders of Cornwall, and I feel little doubt that what has been supposed a rare variety of the Haddock, preserved in the museum of the Dublin University, and referred to in the catalogue of that collection, as also mentioned in Mr. Thompson's "Natural History of Ireland", is in fact an example of the Dorse.
The mistake here supposed, of confounding this fish with the Haddock has occurred in at least one other instance, and is the rather to be excused as in its general form it bears a nearer likeness to the last named fish than to a well fed ordinary Cod, although indeed in colour it differs greatly from both.
The peculiar habits of the Dorse as distinguished from the others of its family have not been communicated to us, but we know it takes a bait, and as food it is said to be of superior quality, this preference being assigned to it even after it has been salted.
The communication which follows is from a gentleman who has made himself known to naturalists by the name of Piscator.
Launceston, September 7th, 1843.
"Dear Sir, Whilst observing a man who was casting his line from the rocks near Boscastle yesterday, I perceived him draw on shore a small species of Cod, about six or seven inches long, different from any of the Cod tribe I had before seen, but exactly answering the description and the plate of the Dorse, or Variable Cod, in the second volume of Mr. Yarrell's "British Fishes," except that instead of being spotted, as there described, it was of a dark coppery tinge we so often see in young Whiting Pollacks when caught on rocky ground.
At a first glance indeed I thought it was a small Pollack, till the short lower jaw and beard below instantly pointed out a distinct species. The eyes were large, irides of a golden hue, the pupils intensely black and sharp, and remarkably brilliant, the nose is prominent, projecting a little beyond the upper jaw, like that of the Haddock, the under jaw short, the upper part above the lateral line of a deep chocolate cast, assuming a coppery tinge along the sides, and becoming much paler towards the belly, the lateral line very distinctly marked and silvery, rising in a curve over the pectoral fin, then descending and passing in a straight line to the tail.
Caudal fin square at the end, of a darker colour, assuming a dusky tinge, as indeed were all the fins. I have been thus particular in my description, wliich so far corresponds with that of Mr. Yarrell, that I have no doubt but that it is the same identical Dorse as described by him. The colour, we all know, of fishes inhabiting rocky ground can never be relied much upon, and varies exceedingly in different specimens taken even in the same spot.
I considered this communication might not be uninteresting to you, more particularly as Mr. Yarrell mentions that the authority upon which the Dorse was originally introduced seems now to be questionable, though it is well known in the Baltic, and frequently called the Baltic Cod. But from the juvenile appearance of the specimen I had an opportunity of seeing, there can be little doubt that it was a native of our own coasts. Mr. Yarrell mentions he had never seen a specimen. I wish I had thought of preserving mine in spirits now, from the heat of the weather it is spoiled by- decomposition."
Since the date of this letter I have been informed of an example which was obtained in St. Austle Bay, on the south- east coast of Cornwall, and two specimens have been caught by fishermen of Polperro, from which our hgure and description, with additional notes, have been taken. Added to these, Mr. Thompson, of Weymouth, iniorms me that in the months of October and November, 1855, four examples were caught at one time, and ten at another, in trawl-vessels belonging to that port.
They were of a golden yellow colour, and of small size, not exceeding three or four inches in length. Of this size indeed colour may not afford a decided mark of distinction, but the form of this fish is so different from that of the Common Cod, that no mistake needs to be committed in con- founding one with the other.
The example selected for description was twenty inches in length. Compared with the Cod the snout projects considerably more, pointed, bent down, cavernous, fatter than the Cod backward from the snout and between the eyes, under jaw much shorter, the eye large, brilliant, even with the top of the head. Behind the head on the back a deep chink, almost like that on the nape of the Rockling, but without a cilihated membrane, as in that fish. Body like that of a Cod (or Haddock) lateral line conspicuous bent down at half its length.
Most of the fins more expanded than in the Cod, the third dorsal and second anal running near the tail, and liable to fold down, tail round, the fin rays stouter in proportion than in the Cod. The colour much varied, the ground-colour yellowish or orange, with mottlings, back rich light brown, fins reddish yellow, mottled, some green tints on the sides, belly pale white, but all the colours disposed to fade.
Barb at the lower jaw prominent. Fin rays, of the first dorsal fourteen, second and third dorsal each with seventeen rays, pectoral eighteen, ventral six, first anal nineteen, second anal seventeen, caudal thirty-four. In its stomach was a crab, ( Zantho florida.) Schonfelt is quoted as saying that when kept in a pond the Dorse devoured the smaller fishes.
The other example was taken in the company of Haddocks in March, as the former had been in December, its colour a bright golden yellow, paler on the sides and belly. Lateral line at first of the colour of the skin, but more golden nearer the tail. The connecting membrane of the fins, uniting the rays, diaphanous from the roots, so that the rays themselves could be easily traced.
Mr. Thompson mentions what was supposed to be a Haddock, obtained by Dr. Ball, at Dublin, of a canary colour, and another where the upper surface the head and back were of a pale golden yellow, which extended to the dorsal, caudal, and pectoral fins, without the mark on the sides common in the Haddock.
Other examples, much like these, but more varied are inentioned, and one of them twentyseven inches in length, and scarcely a doubt can remain that these fishes were examples of the Dorse. Willoughby mentions one caught by a fisherman which measured four feet, which, he justly observes, was an uncommon circumstance, and the rather so as it has hitherto remained the only authentic instance of the capture of this species in Britain.
Dr. Gunther represents this as only a variety, or the young condition of the Common Cod, but I have seen an example of the Dorse, as described above, as large as an ordinary Cod, and easily to be distinguished from it, as also I have examined Codfishes, even of minute size, (down to the fourth of an inch in length,) but the general shape of which was decidedly different from the fish I have here represented.
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