30 WHERE ARE THE HADDOCKS? [CHAP. i. 



tion without this great fact is comparatively unimportant. It 

 is difficult, however, to obtain any reliable information on the 

 natural history of fish either by way of inquiry or by means 

 of experiments. Naturalists cannot live in the water, and 

 those who live on it, and have opportunities for observation, 

 have not the necessary ability to record, or at any rate to gene- 

 ralise what they see. No two fishermen, for instance, will 

 agree on any one point regarding the animals of the deep. I 

 have examined every intelligent fisherman I have met within 

 the last ten years, numbering above one hundred, and few of 

 them have any real knowledge regarding the habits of the 

 fish which it is their business to capture. As an instance of 

 fishermen's knowledge, one of that body recently repeated to 

 me the old story of the migration of the herring, holding that 

 the herring comes from Iceland to spawn, and that the sprat 

 goes to the same icy region in order that it may fulfil the same 

 instinct. 



"Where are the haddocks?" I once asked a Newhaven 

 fisherman. " They are about all eaten up, sir," was his very 

 innocent reply ; and I believe this to be true. The shore 

 races of that fish have long disappeared, and our fishermen 

 have now to seek this most palatable inhabitant of the sea 

 afar off in the deep waters. Vast numbers of the haddock 

 used to be taken in the Firth of Forth, but during late years 

 they have become very scarce, and the boats now require to 

 go a night's voyage to seek for them. If we knew the minu- 

 tiae of the life of this fish, we should be better able to regulate 

 the season for its capture, and the percentage that we might 

 with safety take from the water without deteriorating the 

 breeding power of the animal. There are some touches of 

 romance even about the haddock, but I need not further 

 allude to these in this division of my book, as I shall have to 

 refer to it again under the head of the " White Fish Fisheries." 

 It is, like all fish, wonderfully prolific, and is looked upon 



