Our markets are principally supplied with haddocks from the coast of Yorkshire and other eastern parts of England. They are best in season betwixt the months of July and January, after which they deposit their eggs or roe, and, for many weeks, are scarcely eatable; but those which have not begun to breed may be admitted to the table after this period. Their flesh, which in a degree resembles that of the common cod, is white, firm, well-tasted, and easy of digestion. Those that are best for the table do not usually exceed the weight of two or three pounds.
Though haddocks are sometimes caught with nets, they are much more frequently taken by lines. Each of these has a great number of hooks, and is placed in the sea at the ebb of the tide, and taken up at the ensuing tide. The numbers thus caught have, in some instances, been almost beyond belief. Some idea may however be formed respecting them, when it is stated that shoals of haddocks have not unfrequently been known to extend four or five miles in length and nearly a mile in width.
These fish are sometimes salted and packed in barrels like cod. And, if this be skilfully done, they are excellent eating, and may be kept good for a great length of time.
207. The TORSK (Gadus callarias, Fig. 59) is a species of cod which has three fins upon its back, a small fleshy beard on the under jaw, the upper jaw longer than the lower, and the tail fin nearly even at the extremity.
Its usual weight is from two to seven or eight pounds.
As an article of food the torsk is said to be superior to every fish of its tribe. It is principally found in the Baltic Sea and the Northern Ocean, and has not hitherto been known to frequent the English shores. The most favourable seasons for catching these fish, in Greenland, are the spring and autumn; and the general mode is by lines made of pieces of whalebone, or thongs of seal-skin, the hooks being baited with fish.
The Icelanders frequently salt and dry them, as one of their articles of subsistence for the winter.
208. The WHITING POUT (Gadus barbatus) is a small fish of the cod kind, distinguishable by the great depth of its body, which is usually about one-third of its length; by having three dorsal fins, a small fleshy beard on the chin, and seven punctures on each side of the lower jaw.
Its weight seldom exceeds a pound and half or two pounds.
These delicate fish are found in shoals, near several of the shores of Europe. They are usually caught about the month of August; and are so plentiful on some parts of the French coast that fishermen have been known to take two or three hundred of them at a single haul of their nets.