" FINNAN HADDIES." 81 



St. Peter held the fish when he took from its mouth the 

 tribute-money ; as if a marine fish, like the haddock, 

 would be found in the fresh-water lake of Gennesaret ! 



Formerly it was believed of the haddock, as of the 

 herring, that it was a migratory fish, which appeared 

 periodically in immense shoals about mid- winter j but it 

 is now known that it frequents certain localities in the 

 deep waters, and draws nearer the coast at the approach 

 of its spawning-season. It is said, but we cannot ascer- 

 tain on what ground, that in stormy weather it refuses 

 every kind of bait, and retires for shelter among the 

 marine plants of the ocean-bed in its deepest parts. 



The haddock is not a large fish : its usual weight is 

 about five pounds. Enormous quantities are converted 

 into " Finnan haddies," a luxury of the breakfast- table 

 which is popular in every civilized country. Genuine 

 Finnans, however, that is, haddocks smoked by 'means 

 of peat-reek, are, unhappily, limited in number, and the 

 British householder is compelled to feast upon inferior, 

 but, sooth to say, very palatable imitations. 



To make the trade a profitable one, says Mr. Bertram, 

 they are cured by the hundred in smoking-houses built 

 for the purpose, and are smoked by burning wood or 

 sawdust which, however, does not give them the proper 

 gout. In fact, the wood-smoked Finnans, except that 

 they are fish, have no more the genuine flavour than Scotch 

 marmalade would have if it were made from turnips in- 

 stead of bitter oranges. Fifty years ago it was different ; 

 then the haddocks were smoked in small quantities in the 

 fishing villages between Aberdeen and Stonehaven, and 

 entirely over a peat fire. To the peat-reek they owed the 

 peculiar flavour which secured their popularity. The 



