198 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



M usi'iun," hr has contused this species with the true Halibut, making it appear that only the former 

 is to be found on the coast of North America, in Northern Greenland the Turbot is found only at 

 very great depths, and is tished for, in water of three hundred and fifty to three hundred and eighty 

 fathoms, through holes in the ice, over certain banks in Omenak Fiord and at the mouth of the 

 Jacob's- Haven ice-fiord, which is also packed with great ice-floes. It is said to be found only in 

 the ice-fiords and between the great ice-fields, and there only in the coldest months of the year. 



In South Greenland they are taken on the oceanic banks at a depth of sixty to one hundred 

 and eighty fathoms, though there considered to be not so abundant as in North Greenland. In 

 Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, according to Captains G. Johnson and A. Leighton, of Gloucester, 

 they are very abundant in sixty to three hundred fathoms, and are caught chiefly in winter. 

 They are also obtained by the Gloucester halibut fleet on the outer edge of the oceanic banks, in 

 two hundred and fifty to three hundred fathoms of water. 



Their habits are not at all well understood, but it would appear from the statements of several 

 experienced fishermen, whom I have questioned, that they occur on the very edge of the conti- 

 nental slope in deeper water than the true Halibut, in fact in places where the slope is so nearly 

 perpendicular that the Halibut can hardly hold their places on the bottom. This species is 

 more symmetrical than any other of the family on our coast, and, moreover, is colored upon both 

 sides of the body a fact which indicates that its movements are more like those of the ordinary 

 symmetrical fishes and that it can rest with the body in a vertical attitude. 



It would seem probable that its chosen haunts are along the declivities of the outer slope of 

 the continental plateau, where abundance of food is known to occur, and where other fishes are 

 not so well adapted to live. Many hundreds of pounds are caught, every year, on the halibut trawls, 

 and the fish are frequently iced and brought to market with the Halibut, and frequently eaten by 

 the fishermen themselves. The greater portion of those brought to New York in winter are, how- 

 ever, taken on trawl lines at the mouth of Fortune Bay, and brought down by the vessels which go 

 there to procure cargoes of frozen herring. It is impossible to obtain statistics of the quantities 

 thus brought in, because the market returns do not discriminate between the different species of 

 flounders and flat fishes. 



The Greenland Turbot is an exceedingly palatable fish, its flesh being firm, white, and less dry 

 and more delicate in flavor than that of the Halibut. The average weight is from ten to twenty- 

 five pounds. In Greenland they are perhaps more highly esteemed than any other fish. The 

 Greenlanders begin fishing as soon as the fiords are frozen over and the white whales, which prey 

 greedily upon this fish, have left the entrances open. They fish through holes in the ice, and attach 

 little threads at intervals to their lines, so that they may better see the motion which the nibbling 

 fish makes. Under favorable circumstances a man may take ten to eighteen of these fishes daily. 

 The fishery continues from January to the middle of March, sometimes, however, only a week or 

 two, and usually only about a month. The fish are cut into strips and dried for the consumption 

 of the Danish colonists. It is said that a very fine oil can be made out of their fat, so that in 

 hard times the fish serves to warm and light their houses as well aa feed their occupants. In South 

 Greenland they are not so numerous, but are constantly sought for, being taken in company with 

 the sea perch, or red fish. 1 



63. THE POLE FLOUNDER, OR CRAIG FLOUNDER. 



This fish, Olyptocephalus cynoglossm, often known as the Deep-sea Flounder, was first 

 observed on this coast in 1877, when numerous specimens were obtained by the United States 



1 These facts are taken from Rink's " Greenland." 



