HADDOCK. 
6-3 
them finally to the development and shedding of the spawn, 
the season of which, as is generally the case with the fishes of 
this family, is in the colder months of the year; and after 
continuing in numbers for about two months, during which 
they have yielded to the fisherman an abundant harvest, they 
go away into deeper water or a colder zone; and although 
single examples may be caught at any time, the greater 
number does not show itself again until the return of another 
season. 
The Haddock is in suificient estimation for the table as to 
meet with a ready sale; but neither in numbers nor as food 
is it equal to the Cod, whether fresh or salted; and as regards 
the last particular, there is much difference of opinion whether 
it deserves the credit in which it stands; but this difference 
may in a great degree depend on the nature of the district in 
■which the fish was caught, as well as in the sort of preparation 
to which it has been subjected. It is admitted, however, that 
the older and larger examples are inferior to such as are of 
moderate size. It is chiefly in Scotland that the salted 
Haddock is of sufficient importance to be the subject of trade 
and a few of the towns in that portion of the United Kingdom 
have obtained some degree of celebrity from the manner in 
which these preserved fish have been prepared. Such is the 
case with Findhorn, which has secured a reputation on this 
account, which is more than shared by some other places in 
its neighbourhood, although less generally known. The prin- 
cipal portion of the secret in the preparation of this esteemed 
dish is said to consist in smoking the fish over a peat fire after 
it has been for a short time moderately salted. 
The Haddock feeds near or from the ground, and uses little 
discrimination in the choice- and yet, while it rejects nothing 
which the Cod might swallow there seems to be that difference 
of appetite between these fishes, that the stomach of the 
Haddock will best repay the examination of the naturalist . 
whose interest is in the collection of shells, of which he will 
thus secure some species that otherwise he might not readily ’ 
meet with. In a single stomach, among a multitude of uni- ' 
valve and bivalve shells, I was able to select no less than 
twelve separate species. 
There are at times some unknown influences in the ocean 
