These fish abound on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, and great quantities are salted for home consumption and exportation. On the eastern coasts of England they are in their greatest perfection from the beginning of February to the end of May. They spawn in June: at this season, the males separate from the females, who deposit their eggs in the soft oozy ground at the mouth of large rivers. In a commercial point of view, the Ling may be considered a very important fish. Nine hundred thousand pounds weight are annually exported from Norway. In England, these fish are caught and cured in somewhat the same manner as the cod. Those which are caught off the shores of America are by no means so much esteemed as those which frequent the coasts of Great Britain and Norway; and the Ling in the neighbourhood of Iceland are so bad, that the inhabitants are unable to find a sale for them in any country except their own. The roe and air-bladders, or sounds of the Ling, are pickled, and sold separately. [Illustration: THE HAKE, (_Gadus merluccius_,)] IS a coarse fish, nearly allied to the Ling, and is caught in great abundance on the Devonshire and Cornwall coast. It is also found on the coasts of Ireland and Scotland, where it is called stock-fish, and is often confounded with cod. [Illustration: THE MACKEREL, (_Scomber Scomber_,)] IS taken and well known in all parts of the world. It is usually about a foot or more in length; the body is thick, firm, and fleshy, slender towards the tail; the snout sharp, the tail forked, the back of a lovely green, beautifully variegated, or, as it were, painted with black strokes; the under part of the body is of a silvery colour, reflecting, as well as the sides, the most elegant tints of the opal and the mother-of-pearl. Nothing can be more interesting and pleasing to the eye than to see Mackerel, just caught, brought on shore by the fishermen, and spread, with all their radiancy, upon the pebbles of the beach, at the first rays of the rising sun; but when taken out of their element, they quickly die.