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. The French consider them to be dry and insipid eating; but in England they are often more esteemed than whitings. The inhabitants of Greenland frequently salt them: they also salt and dry the _roes_; and are particularly partial to the _livers_, which they dress and serve to table with crowberries (_Empetrum nigrum_). 209. _The CAPELAN, or POOR_ (Gadus minutus), _is a fish of the cod tribe, which seldom exceeds the length of six or seven inches, and differs from all others of the same tribe by being black in the interior of the abdomen._ _It has three dorsal fins, a small beard on the chin, and nine punctures on each side of the lower jaw._