HADDOCK. 63 



them finally to the development and shedding of the spawn, 

 the season of which, as is generally the case with the fishes of 

 this family, is in the colder months of the year; and after 

 continuing in numbers for about tvro months, during which 

 they have yielded to the fisherman an abundant harvest, they 

 go away into deeper water or a colder zone; and although 

 single examples may be caught at any time, the greater 

 number does not show itself again until the return of another 

 season. 



The Haddock is in sufficient estimation for the table as to 

 meet with a ready sale; but neither in numbers nor as food 

 is it equal to the Cod, whether fresh or salted; and as regards 

 the last particular, there is much difference of opinion whether 

 it deserves the credit in which it stands; but this difference 

 may in a great degree depend on the nature of the district in 

 which the fish was caught, as Avell as in the sort of preparation 

 to which it has been subjected. It is admitted, however, that 

 the older and larger examples are inferior to such as are of 

 moderate size. It is chiefly in Scotland that the salted 

 Haddock is of sufficient importance to be the subject of trade, 

 and a few of the towns in that portion of the United Kingdom 

 have obtained some degree of celebrity from the manner in 

 which these preserved fish have been prepared. Such is the 

 case with Findhorn, which has secured a reputation on this 

 account, which is more than shared by some other places in 

 its neighbourhood, although less generally known. The prin- 

 cipal portion of the secret in the preparation of this esteemed 

 dish is said to consist in smoking the fish over a peat fire after 

 it has been for a short time moderately salted. 



The Haddock feeds near or from the ground, and uses little 

 discrimination in the choice; and yet, while it rejects nothing 

 which the Cod might swallow, there seems to be that difference 

 of appetite between these fishes, that the stomach of the 

 Haddock will best repay the examination of the naturalist 

 whose interest is in the collection of shells, of which he will 

 thus secure some species that otherwise he might not readily 

 meet with. In a single stomach, among a multitude of uni- 

 valve and bivalve shells, I was able to select, no less than 

 twelve separate species. 



There are at times some unknown influences in the ocean 



