FISHES. 367 
fact recorded in the seventeenth chapter of St. Matthew : 
" Go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the 
fish that first cometh up, and when thou hast opened his 
tnouth, thou shalt find a piece of money ; that take and 
give unto them for me and thee." And while St. Peter 
held the fish with his fore-finger and thumb, it is fabled, 
that the skin received then, and preserved to this moment, 
the hereditary impression. 
Haddocks migrate in immense shoals, which usually 
arrive on the Yorkshire coasts about the middle of winter. 
These shoals are sometimes known to extend from the 
shore nearly three miles in breadth, and in length from 
Flamborough Head to Tynemouth Castle, a distance of 
fifty miles ; and, perhaps, even further. An idea of the 
number of Haddocks may be formed from the following 
circumstance: three fishermen, within a mile of the har- 
bour of Scarborough, frequently loaded their boat with 
these fish twice a day, taking each time a ton weight of 
them. 
The flesh of the Haddock is harder and thicker than 
that of the whiting, and not so good ; but it is often 
brought upon the table as a good dish, either broiled, 
boiled, or baked, and is esteemed by many above several 
others. The Haddocks caught on the Irish coast, near 
Dublin, are unusually large, and of a fine flavour ; they 
have, with the firmness of the turbot, much of its sweet- 
ness. They are in season from October to January. 
