CHAP. I.] THE FOOD OF FISH. 31 



by the fishermen as being also a migratory fish, as are also 

 the turbot and many other sea animals. 



The family to which the haddock belongs embraces many 

 of our best food fish, as whiting, cod, ling, etc. ; but of the 

 growth and habits of the members of this family we are as 

 ignorant as we are of the natural history of the whitebait or 

 sprat. I have the authority of a rather learned Buckie fisher- 

 man (recently drowned, poor fellow ! in the great storm on 

 the Moray Frith) for stating that cod-fish do not grow at a 

 greater rate than from eight to twelve ounces per annum. 

 This fisherman had seen a cod that had got enclosed by some 

 accident in a large rock pool, and so had obtained for a few 

 weeks the advantage of studying its powers of digestion, 

 which he found to be particularly slow, although there was 

 abundant food. The haddock, which is a far more active fish, 

 my informant considered to grow at a more rapid rate. On 

 asking this man about the food of fishes, he said he was of 

 opinion that they preyed extensively upon each other, but 

 that, so far as his opportunities of observation went, they did 

 not as a matter of course live upon each other's spawn ; in 

 other words, he did not think that the enormous quantities of 

 roe and milt given to fish were provided, as has been supposed by 

 one or two writers on the subject, for any other purpose than 

 the keeping up of the species. The spawn of all kinds of fish 

 is extensively wasted by other means ; and these animals have 

 no doubt a thousand ways of obtaining food that are yet un- 

 known to man ; indeed, the very element in which they live 

 is in a sense a great mass of living matter, and it doubtless 

 affords by means of minute animals a wonderful source of 

 supply. Fish, too, are less dainty in their food than is gene- 

 rally supposed, and some kinds eat garbage of the most re- 

 volting description with great avidity. 



I take this opportunity of correcting the very common error 

 that all fish are migratory. Some fishermen, and naturalists 



