on the remarkable Failure of Haddocks . 369 
has met with beds of copperas at the bottom of the sea, and 
thereby is poisoned ; but why should such beds (supposing the 
case true) have worse effects in 1789, than at any time be- 
fore ? 
It is an indisputable fact, that many ships, on the return from 
Archangel, in the latter end of 1789, saw immense quantities of 
haddocks (no other fish were particularized), for fifty or sixty 
leagues, I believe, lying dead on the surface of the sea, but 
could not at that time ascribe any cause for the event. I 
believe about that time an eruption broke out in Hecla, and 
perhaps it may with some degree of probability be con- 
jectured, that volcanic matter, of noxious quality, may have 
burst in the sea, and occasioned the above destruction and 
failure ever since. 
The few haddocks caught in 1789 and 1790, were remark- 
ably large ; these keep nearest the shore : the small ones lie 
more out to sea ; so that, when fishermen were wont to catch 
small haddocks, they desisted, and came nearer the shore to 
procure the large ones. The shoal generally lay about one 
league from the shore, was about three miles in breadth, and 
in length extended near the whole coasts of the three coun- 
ties, in constant succession, for about three months. The breed 
of haddocks seems nearly destroyed on these coasts, which 
is a loss of many thousands of pounds per annum to fishermen 
and others, besides the loss of a very plentiful and accept- 
able article of food to persons of all ranks, especially in the 
winter season, when the price of provisions bears hard upon 
the poor. 
May I hazard one question : Is it probable that, in the en- 
suing winter, or a few succeeding ones, the fishery may recover 
