THE HADDOCK AND THE BIB. 513 



fore, gives occupation to some 20,000 men, and the 

 captures are said to amount to about 10,000,000 cod 

 fish annually. 



The Haddock (Kolja, Sw. ; Ilyse, Norw. ; Kuller, 

 Dan. ; Oadus ^Eylefinus, Linn.) was likewise very com- 

 mon with us, and elsewhere on the whole of the western, 

 coast of Scandinavia. Very few, however, find their 

 way into the Baltic, probably in consequence of not 

 thriving so well in brackish water as the Cod, and those 

 few confine themselves to the more southern portion 

 of that sea. Though this fish appears to move about a 

 good deal for in places where captured one day in 

 abundance, it is not perhaps to be found the next 

 yet it is not thought to be a great wanderer, but to 

 restrict itself chiefly to the locality where it was bred. 

 Its usual length is from one to two feet, but the fisher- 

 men affirm that it attains three feet and upwards, and a 

 weight of thirteen or fourteen pounds. It is a social fish, 

 keeping in larger or smaller shoals, and for the most part 

 in pretty deep water. It feeds, on crustaceans, worms, 

 and small fish, and when the young herrings enter the 

 Skiirgard, it is amongst their most persistent pursuers. 

 Its breeding habits are not altogether known, some 

 saying that it spawns at the end of December, but others, 

 not until February is well advanced. Its flesh is firm 

 and delicate, and held in considerable estimation by all 

 classes, more especially by the fishermen, to whom it not 

 only serves as food, but is highly prized by them as bait 

 for the Cod and Ling. 



The Bib, or Pout (Bred-Torsk, or broad-cod, Sw. ; 

 Gadus hiscits, Linn.), has only twice been captured in 

 the Scandinavian waters. In the flrst instance at Fiske- 

 biickskil, in November, 183G, which specimen is preserved 

 in the Stockholm Museum ; and in the second case in 

 the Gothenburg Skiirgard by M. Malm, who believes it 



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