This salt water fish is caught is great abundance in the vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts, and on the Great Banks. It swims in immense schools, and is very easily taken. In the spring the cod will bite in the most greedy manner, and if your tackle be strong enough, you can catch enormous quantities, and of very large size. The mud clam, or the moss bunker, either of them will answer for bait. Your line should be very stout, and made of cotton or hemp, 100 to 150 feet long, with the largest size black-fish hook, or a regular cod hook of small size. The sinker should weigh two or three pounds. Cod are not at all particular, and are not easily frightened. It sometimes happens that one may be lost off the hook by tearing the cartilege of his mouth. This same fish, with his mutilated muzzle, will be just as apt to bite again the next moment. They are fished for with hand lines, from boats, in all cases.

The cod fish, when fresh, is excellent eating, whether boiled or fried. It is a standard dish at the hotels and eating houses in Boston and New York.