HAKK. 



519 



1837, ill -wliich yt'.-ir the Hake had not finished spawn- 

 ing liefore August. According to the lunarying asser- 

 tion of tlie fisheriucn of IJoluislan there is only one 

 single bank iu the whole of tlie Cattegat where the 

 Hake assembles in numbers to spawn. Tiiis spot is 

 known as Kii))i)iicUi((ii}x-cii or KininiU'l(/ii(ii(/ (Hake liunk 

 or Hake Shoal), and lies W'.S.W. of (iothenburg, in the 

 middle of the Cattegat, near the Sor Is. It is rather 

 small, consists of sand and shingle, and lies in l(i — 22 

 fiithoms of water. On this l)ank Hakes collect in large 

 shoals to spawn, from the middle of fluly to the middle 

 of August. After this period they disperse again. Ac- 

 cording to some of the fishermen they reappear at the 

 same spot iu spring, when they sometimes come near 

 the land. From this we might perhaps conclude that 

 it sometimes spawns as early here as in the south. 



According to Schagekstrom the Hake is rare in 

 tlie Sound, but is known to the fishermen by the name 

 of Lnbh. The Royal Museum has received from Trybom 

 a female, about 5 dm. long and with only slightly 

 developed ovaries, which was taken oft" Raa, near Hel- 

 singborg, in the latter half of October, 1882. Mubius 

 and Heincke give two instances, in November, 1872 

 and December, 187.3, of the occurrence of the Hake in 

 Kiel Bay. In the Great Belt, according to Hansen, it 

 has been taken oft" Corsoer. It seems never to have 

 penetrated farther into the Baltic. The i)Opular name 

 of the Hake in Bohuslan and at Kullen, kummel, seems 

 to be a coiTuption of the Norwegian kidmund (Coal- 

 mouth), from the black colour of the mouth. Lijsing 

 is the ordinary name of the species in Norwav, where, 

 according to Collett, it is not rare, but occurs only 

 sparingly up to Trondhjem Fjord. North of this lo- 

 cality only solitary specimens have been met with, as 

 for instance in ]\Iarch, 188o, when a specimen IS'/o dm. 

 long was caught oft' Lodingen in the Lofoden Islands. 



The Hake occurs throughout the North Sea. It 

 is extremely plentiful at a few spots on the coast of 

 Brittany and the south-west coast of England and all 

 round Ireland, but is said to be rare to the north-west 

 of Scotland. Oft' the Faroe Islands it is not known, 

 and the Lysi of Iceland is undoubtedly a dift"crent 

 species, unless, as seems more probable, Fabers de- 

 scription of it is due to a confusion between two spe- 

 cies. On the coast of the Spanish Peninsula the Hake 

 is found at several spots, and in the Mediterranean, 

 where it is caught in large quantities, it takes the place 

 of the Cod, which does not occur there. 



Kxc'cpt during the days occupied bv the spawning 

 the Hake is extremely voracious and, therefore, easily 

 taken on the hook. It lives chiefly on fish. Herrings, 

 Mackerel etc., and is said to destroy more than it can 

 devour. It eagerly follows the Herring and Pilchard 

 shoals. It drags the Pilchards out of the net, though 

 it often entangles itself in the meshes, and thus pavs 

 the penalty of its voracit\-. Dui'ing the seine-fi.sherv 

 for Herrings Hakes have been found in the seine that 

 have glutted themselves quite helpless on the catch. 

 It is aLso stated that the Hake, when drawn out of the 

 water, evacuates the contents of its stomach. A spe- 

 cimen opened by Sundevall, however, contained three 

 young Herrings, and a Hake aliout 6\'„ dm. long which 

 was forwarded to the Royal Museum from StrQmstad 

 by Baron CederstkOm, had two well-preserved Sprats 

 in its stomach. It is probably the voracity of the Hake 

 that has given rise to the incredible tale told by StrO.m, 

 on the authority of the Norwegian fishermen, that three 

 fish were once caught on the same hook, the hook 

 having pierced through the belly of the first, and hav- 

 ing been at once swallowed bv the second and in its 

 turn b}- the third. 



This fish is apparently periodic. In the Cattegat, 

 according to Holeberg, it was extremely plentiful 

 during the Herring-fishery for some years about 1780, 

 more Hakes being taken than could be made use of. 

 Then it became rare, but was again caught in fairlv 

 large quantities from 1801 to 180;^. when several hun- 

 dred barrels were salted. After this period, when the 

 Herring disappeared, it again became so rare that it 

 was not until 1821, after several years' enquiry, that 

 HoLLBERG succeeded in obtaining a specimen from the 

 Cattegat for purposes of description. About 1830 it 

 was again abundant in Bohuslan, but about 1840 the 

 numbers again decreased. At the present time, now 

 that the Herring is plentiful, the Hake is not rare, at 

 least on the north coast of Bohuslan, according to 

 Cederstrom. This fluctuation of the supply has much 

 that reminds us of the periodicitv of the Herring, and 

 may probablv be explained in the same Avay. Apart 

 from the fai't that the roving expeditions of a fish-of- 

 pre\ arc determined l)y the abundance of its food, 

 thcA' are also undertaken for purposes of reproduction. 

 In the Cattegat the Hake has liut few spawning-places, 

 perhaps, as hinted above, only one; and, like many 

 other species, probably keeps persistently to its accus- 

 tomed haunt. But when it is disturbed while spawning, 



