450 Fishes. 
beneath the gills, is a black spot on each shoulder, which 
resembles the mark of a man's finger and thumb ; from 
which circumstance it is called St. Peters fish, alluding, 
to the fact recorded in the seventeenth chapter of St. 
Matthew : " Go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take 
up the fish that first cometh up ; and when thou hast 
opened his mouth, 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, and preserved to this 
day, the hereditary impression. 
Haddocks migrate in immense shoals, which usually 
arrive on the Yorkshire coast 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 farther. 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, either broiled, boiled, or baked, 
and is by many much esteemed. The Haddocks caught 
on the Irish coast, near Dublin, are unusually large, 
and of a fine flavour, and unite to the firmness of the 
turbot much of its sweetness. They are in season from 
October to January. 
