THE HADDOCK, (Gadus æglefinus,)
Is much less in size than the cod-fish, and differs somewhat from it in shape; it is of a bluish colour on the back, with small scales; a black line is carried on from the upper corner of the gills on both sides down to the tail; in the middle of the sides, under the line a little 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. Peter’s 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 harbour 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.
