GADID^E. 285 



Means of capture. Line or beam-trawl fishing as it generally feeds near the 

 ground. Off Norfolk long lines for haddock fishing, the length of each of which 

 is about 370 fathoms, are locally termed schulls. In the Moray Firth it is 

 taken throughout the year, except during the six or eight weeks of the 

 herring fishery; but in stormy weather it refuses all baits. Pennant (1776) 

 observed that three fishermen within one mile of Scarborough harbour frequently 

 loaded their coble or boat with them twice a day, taking each time about a 

 ton of fish : when they shot their lines upwards of three miles from the shore 

 they took nothing but dog-fishes, which showed the limits to which they 

 resorted for feeding. The best sold at Is to Is 6d the score, and the smaller ones at 

 a penny and sometimes a halfpenny a score. When the surface of the sea in the 

 Arctic regions is covered with ice these fishes congregate in the crevices which 

 separate the ice. The inhabitants take advantage of this, and by constantly 

 breaking the ice produce crevices which answer their purpose, and here they 

 draw out the haddocks with their hands. Seals likewise use these crevices for 

 fishing from ; Arctic foxes are said to also join in their destruction. 



Baits. Cuttle, mussels of both the horse-and edible- species, sprats, and cod bait. 



Breeding. In America a haddock of 2f lb. gave 169,050 eggs, the number 

 increasing in quantity until from one 9 T 9 g lb. 1,839,581 were taken : the shortest time 

 required for hatching was eight and the average nine days. Pennant observes 

 that they spawn in January. Some are certainly in full roe during February and 

 March, during which latter month R. Couch observed that they spawned in 

 Cornwall ; and Parnell that they did so in the Firth of Forth. Sars remarked 

 that the spawning process of this fish is very similar to that of the cod, and in the 

 Loffoden Islands it takes place about the same time. Off Cape Ann in America 

 the number of males were observed to be more abundant than the females, but 

 the latter averaged a larger size. 



Life history. Sars observed the young in the sea off Loffoden Islands 

 concealing themselves under medusa? similarly to the cod (see page 281). 



Uses. Haddocks taken by line are far superior, their flesh being much firmer 

 than those captured by the beam trawl, in which they are bruised and generally 

 have their scales rubbed off. But the trawl-haddocks are by no means wasted as 

 food, the head being cut off and with the intestines used for manure. They are then 

 split and smoked, and sold as smoked haddocks. Haddocks will not take salt so 

 well as cod. In the neighbourhood of Walworth and Kennington there are 

 several curing-houses. The fish are bought by the costermongers in Billingsgate 

 market in the morning, pickled, skewered, hung up in the smoke of sawdust 

 by the evening, and when sufficiently tinged a yellow colour they are fit for sale. 

 A skilled curer can clean, salt, and smoke a load of haddock in from six to eifht 

 hours. Those from Finnan, near Aberdeen, have obtained a great reputation. All 

 at first were smoked over a peat-reek, but the demand becoming very great they 

 were cured in special buildings erected for the purpose and smoked, in large 

 numbers over burning fir branches or burning sawdust. 



As food. The small ones, not sufficiently old to breed, are extremely good 

 from May until February, and some few even so late as April ; but the flesh of 

 the larger ones is often dry and hard, still up to two or three pounds in weight it 

 is a good table fish for midwinter. It is in the best season from November until 

 February, while in the Irish markets the larger the haddock the more it is 

 generally prized. The quality of its flesh differs in accordance with the waters 

 it inhabits. " Among the East Friezelanders, whei'e the sea is very muddy and 

 shallow, it is thought to be so unwholesome as to excite fever : but with us it is 

 very good food and may vie with the cod," the best being taken off the Irish coast. 



Diseases. In the record into the state of the salmon fisheries in 1825, it 

 appears from the Parliamentary report that about thirty years previously so 

 great was the havoc among these fish that ships had sailed through many 

 leagues of the North Sea where the sui'face was covered with dead haddocks, and 

 for several subsequent years it was a rare fish in those localities. Mr. Hood 

 (Land and Water, March 22nd, 1869) observes having some years previously paid 

 a visit to Dagenham Beach in Essex, and having noticed not very far from "where 



