192 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



banks off Holsteinborg and ill the sounds farther south. 1 Eink narrates that " in the year of the 

 war," when the Europeans were obliged to supply themselves with provisions from Greenland, 

 there were taken among the islands off Godthaab (G4 8' north latitude) two thousand Halibut, and 

 that in a single half day two boats took over one hundred. This was in 1809. They are rarely 

 taken in the district of Julianshaab, in latitude CO 43' north. 



Peter C. Sutherland, writing of Riskol Bank, iu 1850, stated that Halibut were then very 

 abundant in that locality, and that the cod-fishing vessels which visited Davis Strait every season 

 use them to bait their hooks, though the supply far exceeded the demand for this purpose. 2 



On the return of the Penny Expedition, in 1851, Sutherland narrates that when crossing the 

 Arctic Circle, in longitude 53, the sailors put over lines baited with pork and hooked a cod and a 

 Halibut at the depth of forty fathoms. 3 



The most northern occurrence of the Halibut on the western side of Davis Strait is that 

 recorded by Mr. Ludwig Kumlien, naturalist of the Howgate expedition, who saw a large indi- 

 vidual taken by the Eskimos off the mouth of Davis Strait, near latitude 64 north. 



Richardson, in the " Fauna Boreali- Americana," speaks of the occurrence of the species on the 

 Greenland coast, but seems to have no authentic information of its having been observed even as 

 far north as Labrador on the opposite side. 



There can be no reasonable doubt that Halibut are found along the entire eastern coast of 

 Labrador, though there is no other published record of their occurrence north of Red Bay, in the 

 Straits of Belle Isle, noar latitude 51 40' north, where they were observed by Mr. Horatio R. 

 Storer, several having been taken during his stay at that place in the summer of 1849. 4 



They are abundant in certain parts of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, especially the island of 

 Auticosti, and are also found along the entire coasts of Newfoundland and the eastern shores of 

 Nova Scotia. 



In June, 1878, the schooner "G. P. Whitman," of Gloucester, caught a fare of Halibut in two 

 to twelve fathoms of water near Green Point, Newfoundland. The crew said that they could see 

 the fish lying on the bottom iu shallow water. 



Capt. George Olsen, schooner "Proctor Brothers," arrived at Gloucester August 2, 1880, with 

 i'L',000 pounds' weight of fresh Halibut, from Anticosti. He reported H;:libut plenty then at the 

 western end of the island close inshore within half a mile; he saw the Halibut sporting near 

 and on the surface; he found they would not bite, as on the banks, at Halibut bait, and since fresh 

 herring or capelin could not be obtained, could get only a partial trip of Halibut. They were good 

 fish, weighing sixty to eighty pouuds. 5 



According to M. H. Perley they are found in the Bay of Fuudy up to its very head, where 

 they are taken in summer in Cumberland Bay, near the light-house off Apple River, and also in 

 West Bay. He states that they are also found on the south shore of the Bay of Fundy, and 

 abundantly from Cape Split to Brier Island, as well as in the Annapolis Basin. 6 



'ETZEL, ANTON VON: Gronland geographisch mid statistisch beschrieben. Aus diinischeu Quellschriften von 

 Anton von Etzel. Stuttgart, J. G. Cotta'scher Verlag, 1860. 8vo, pp. xiv, 6ti5 (p. 254). 



3 SUTHERLAND, PETER C. : Journal of a Voyage in Baffin's Bay ;mtl Barrow Straits in tlio years 1850-1851, per- 

 formed by H. M. Ship.s " Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" . . . in so-arch, of the missing crews of H. M. Ships "Erebus" 

 and '-Terror." ' . . . By Peter C. Sutherland, M. D., M. E. C.S. E., Surgeon to the Expedition. In two volumes. 

 . . . London: . . . 1852. (Vol. i,p.26.) 



3 SUTHE1U.AM> : <>i>. ri'/., ii,p.:!41. 



4 STOREic, HOUATIO KOKINSON : Observations on tlie Fisheries of the, Coasts of Nova Scotia and Labrador, with 

 Descriptions of New Species. <T'n>r. Bost. Sue. Nat. Hist., vi, 1857, pp. 247-270, pis. vii-viii (p. 267). 



6 Statement of A. Howard Clark. 



"Reports on the Sea and Kivcr Fisheries of Mew lirnnswick, l-i.VJ, pp. l.V.I-KiH. 



