THE HALIBUT: DISTRIBUTION. \\):} 



Perley's report was prepared iu 1851', and there is no evideiicc of a diininiition in that region 

 since the time he wrote. 



Mr. J. Matthew Jones tells me that Halibut are occasionally taken at, Five Islands in the 

 Basin of Minus, but that this is of rare occurrence. 



I am indebted to Captain Ashby for the following facts about the southern limits of the 

 distribution of the Halibut: 



He has never known them to be found south of Sandy Hook, where large ones are occasion- 

 ally taken in winter. In May, 1870, the schooner " Cartwright," fishing ten miles southeast of 

 Moutauk Point, caught many Halibut. In February, 1876, some Noank smacks caught a lew Hal- 

 ibut about eight miles from laud, off the southeast poiut of Block Island. Within the last forty 

 years one or two Halibut have beeu taken off the outer shore of Fisher's Island. He has never 

 known any to be taken in Long Island Sound. Halibut are sometimes taken in three fa) horns of 

 water among the breakers of Nantucket, iu " blowy weather." Forty years ago they were abundant 

 about Gay Head and Neman's Laud. There has been no systematic fishing there lately, but 

 some Halibut have probably been taken. 



The local papers chronicled the capture, on May 1, 1876, off Watch Hill, Ehode Island, of an 

 eighty-pound Halibut, the first taken in that vicinity for many years. 



They are occasionally taken along the shores of Maine and Massachusetts, but so seldom that 

 a capture of this kind by one of the inshore fishermen is always mentioned iu the local papers. 



ABUNDANCE. Half a century ago Halibut were extremely abundant iu Massachusetts Bay. 

 Elsewhere in this essay are given several instances of their great plenty and voracity, as narrated 

 by some of the early fishermen of Cape Ann. Of late years, however, few are found except in 

 deep water on the off-shore banks. 



The presence of so important a food-fish as the Halibut iu America did not long escape the 

 observations of the early English explorers. Capt. John Smith, in his " History of Virginia," wrote : 

 "There is a large sized fish called Hallibut, or Turbut: some are taken so bigg that two men have 

 much a doe to hall them into the boate; but there is such plenty, that the fisher men ouely eate 

 the heads tt finues, and throw away the bodies: such in Paris would yeeld f>. or C. crownes a 

 peece: and this is no discommodity." 



SIZE. The Halibut is surpassed iu size by only three of our eastern species the sword fish, 

 the tunny, and the tarpum. There is said, by experienced fishermen, to be a great difference in the 

 size of the two sexes, the females being much the larger; the male is said rarely to exceed fifty 

 pounds in weight, and to be, ordinarily, in poor condition and less desirable for food. The average 

 size of a full-grown female is somewhere between one hundred and one hundred and fifty pounds, 

 though they are sometimes much heavier. Captain Collins, wLo has had many years' experience 

 iu the Gloucester halibut fishery, assures me that he has never seen one which would weigh over 

 two hundred and fifty pounds, and that one weighing over two hundred and fifty pounds is 

 considered large. There are, however, well-authenticated instances of their attaining greater 

 dimensions. Captain Atwood, in communication with the Boston Society of Natural History, in 

 1864, stated that the largest he had ever taken weighed, when dressed, two hundred and thirty- 

 seven pounds, and would probably have weighed three hundred pounds as taken from the. water. 

 In July, 1879, however, the same reliable observer saw at Provincetown two individuals )aken 

 near Race Point, one of which weighed three hundred and fifty-nine pounds (three hundred and 

 two pounds when dressed), the other, four hundred and one pounds (three hundred and twenty- 

 two pounds when dressed). 

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